Electrochemically-aided membrane separation and catalytic processes

Abstract

Electrochemically driven membrane separations and catalytic processes are interesting research areas which have, to date, received relatively little attention. Research into electrically-aided membrane separation and catalytic processes is currently being carried out in South Africa. The research objective is the development and characterisation of novel composite materials based on solid polyelectrolytes (SPE), containing nanoparticles of catalytically active metals, such as Pt, Ir or Pd, distributed within the polymeric matrices. An example of such an SPE matrix is a perfluorinated ion-exchange membrane. The novel composite materials (in fact, membranes) are both ionically and electronically conductive due to the presence of the metal nanoparticles. The application of potentials to conducting membranes results in the enhancement of catalytic activity as well as the selectivity of separations. The membranes based on SPE can be used for the catalytic processing of petrochemical mixtures, water treatment (disinfection, nitrate removal, etc.), oxygen, hydrogen and ozone generation, and electrically enhanced gas and vapour separations. In this paper Dr Dmitri Bessarabov briefly outlines the current status of the research, available technology and discusses challenges and possible applications.