Mathematical modeling of the transport characteristics of a PVDF-based cation-exchange membrane with low water content

Abstract

New effective ion-exchange membranes are needed for a variety of applications, with a particularly pressing need for membranes used in fuel cells and membrane water electrolysis. PVDF-based membranes are promising for these and other applications. Two samples of such membranes with a low water content are studied. The interest in the behavior of these samples is that with an increase in the bathing NaCl solution concentration, the diffusion permeability decreases, whereas usually it increases along with increasing membrane conductivity. The hypothesis is that with increasing concentration, the water content decreases even more, which leads to a narrowing of the intercluster ion-conducting channels and a reduction in the effective mobility of coions, since the latter have to go around narrowed sections of channels. To simulate the concentration dependence of conductivity, diffusion permeability and transport numbers for the two above samples, the microheterogeneous model is extended to describe the loss of water with increasing external concentration and take into account the decrease of coion percolation through the membrane. The results of simulation are compared with the experimental data.