Electrochemical Behavior of Ion Exchange Resin Membrane Electrodes

Abstract

Membrane electrodes have been studied for some time, and an adequate theory for permeable membranes has been developed by Meyer and Sievers (4) and Teorell (7). The theory has been recently improved and enlarged by Scatchard (6) to include water transfer through the membrane electrode. Marshall (2, 3, 5) has described membranes prepared from different clays and has modified the Teorell-Meyer-Si evers theory to bring it into accord with membranes which are not permeable to water. The heats of adsorption of ions upon the membranes has also been introduced by Marshall in order to explain the experimental membrane potentials which are obtained with simple mixtures of ions. Wyllie and Patnode (8) have described the preparation and electrochemical behavior of membranes prepared from various cation exchange materials using polystyrene and methyl methacrylate as bonding agents. The study reported here describes the preparation of membranes from a number of different cation and anion exchange materials and their electrochemical behavior. Resins were selected which contained different functional groups. Amberlite IR-120, Dowex 50, Permutit Q, Amberlite IRC-50, Permutit H, Duolite CS-100, and Deca]so represented the cation exchangers, and Amberlite IRA-400 and Dowex-2 were the anion exchangers chosen.