Abstract
The inherent two-phase structure of heterogeneous ion exchange membranes leads to defects in high area resistance and powder, which has greatly limited the application in electrodialysis. In this research, we have prepared a series of semihomogeneous cation exchange membranes from polyethylene-polystyrene (PE–PS) resin particles, which were synthesized via monomer absorption and PE particle-confined polymerization. The processing of semihomogeneous cation exchange membranes was conducted via thermoforming the PE–PS resin particles into films and subsequent sulfonation. The influence of the monomer content on water uptake, IEC, membrane area resistance, and electrodialysis performance was studied. The results proved that due to the excellent mechanical and film-forming characteristics of PE, the sulfonated membranes were still endowed with great mechanical properties, and the heating conditions enhanced the monomer absorption in polyethylene particles, which ensured high IEC for excellent electrodialysis performance after sulfonation. It was observed that the semihomogeneous cation exchange membrane (CEM-60) showed the highest NaCl desalination ratio (92.3%) and exhibited higher current efficiency (97.68%) and lowest surface area resistance (1.82 Ω·cm2), which exceeded the commercial cation exchange membrane CAM (6.96 Ω·cm2). These results suggested a promising future of semihomogeneous membranes.
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