• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.319-327
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• 2022

Ion exchange membranes have been developed from laboratory tools to industrial products with significant technical and trade impacts in the last 70 years. Today, ion exchange membranes are successfully applied for water and energy for different electro-membrane processes. Hydrogen could be produced by electrochemical water splitting using renewable energy, for example, solar, biomass, geothermal and wind energy. This review briefly summarizes the recent studies reporting the state-of-the-art anion-exchange membrane water electrolysis, especially focusing on the enhancement of the durability of anion-exchange membranes. Anion-exchange membrane water electrolysis could be used as inexpensive non-noble metal electrocatalysts that are capable of producing low cost of hydrogen. However, the main challenge of anion-exchange membrane water electrolysis is to increase the performance and durability. In this mini review, the limiting factors of the durability and the technology enhancing the durability will be discussed for anion exchange membrane water electrolysis.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.623-631
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• 2020

This study analyzes the effect of negative air ions on the concentration of airborne particulate matter and evaluates the expected purification efficiency of open spaces for particulate matter by investigating the amount of negative air ions generated by plants. This study establishes a negative air ion generation treatment environment, plant environment, and control environment to measure the purification efficiency of particulate matter under the conditions of each, analyzing the expected purification efficiency by designing a particulate matter purification model. Results show that the amount of generated negative air ion according to environment was negative air ion generation treatment environment > plant environment > control environment; this order also applies to the particulate matter purification efficiency. Moreover, it took 65 min for the negative ion generation treatment environment, 90 min for the plant environment, and 240 min for the control environment to reach the standard expected purification efficiency of particulate matter concentration of 960 mg/㎥ for PM₁₀. For PM_2.5, with the designated maximum concentration of 700 mg/㎥, it took 60 min for the negative ion generation treatment environment, 80 min for the plant environment, and more than 240 min for the control environment. Based on these results, the expected purification efficiency compared to the control environment was quadrupled in the negative ion generation treatment environment and tripled in the plant environment on average.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.1296-1299
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• 2013

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.443-455
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• 2013

Electrochemical studies on charge transfer reactions across the interface between two immiscible electrolyte solutions (ITIES) have greatly attracted researcher's attentions due to their wide applicability in research fields such as ion sensing and biosensing, modeling of biomembranes, pharmacokinetics, phase-transfer catalysis, fuel generation and solar energy conversion. In particular, there have been extensive efforts made on developing sensing platforms for ionic species and biomolecules via gelifying one of the liquid phases to improve mechanical stability in addition to creating microscale interfaces to reduce ohmic loss. In this review, we will mainly discuss on the basic principles, applications and future aspects of various sensing platforms utilizing ion transfer reactions across the ITIES. The ITIES is classified into four types : (i) a conventional liquid/liquid interface, (ii) a micropipette supported liquid/liquid interface, (iii) a single microhole or an array of microholes supported liquid/ liquid interface on a thin polymer film, and (iv) a microhole array liquid/liquid interface on a silicon membrane. Research efforts on developing ion selective sensors for water pollutants as well as biomolecule sensors will be highlighted based on the use of direct and assisted ion transfer reactions across these different ITIES configurations.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.257-268
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• 2023

Membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) is a variation of the conventional CDI process that can improve desalination efficiency by employing an ion-exchange membrane (IEM) together with a porous carbon electrode. The IEM is a key component that greatly affects the performance of MCDI. In this study, we attempted to derive the optimal fabricating factors for IEMs that can significantly improve the desalination efficiency of MCDI. For this purpose, pore-filled IEMs (PFIEMs) were then fabricated by filling the pores of the PE porous support film with monomers and carrying out in-situ photopolymerization. As a result of the experiment, the prepared PFIEMs showed excellent electrochemical properties that can be applied to various desalination and energy conversion processes. In addition, through the correlation analysis between MCDI performance and membrane characteristic parameters, it was found that controlling the degree of crosslinking of the membranes and maximizing permselectivity within a sufficiently low level of membrane electrical resistance are the most desirable membrane fabricating condition for improving MCDI performance.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.469-474
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• 2013

An anion exchange membrane was prepared for a separator in the alkaline water electrolysis. An anion exchange membrane was prepared by the chloromethylation and amination of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) used as a base polymer. The membrane properties of the prepared anion exchange membrane such as the membrane resistance and ion exchange capacity were measured. The minimum membrane resistance of the prepared anion exchange membrane was $2.9{\Omega}{\cdot}cm^2$ in 1M NaOH aq. solution. This membrane had 2.17 meq./g-dry-membrane and 43.4% for the ion exchange capacity and water content, respectively. The membrane properties of the prepared anion exchange membrane was compared with that of the commercial anion exchange membrane. The membrane resistance decreased in the order; AHT>IOMAC> Homemade membrane> AHA>APS=AFN. The ion exchange capacity decreased in the order; Homemade membrane>AFN>APS>AHT>AHA>IOMAC.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.26 no.9
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• pp.1081-1086
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• 2017

The present study was conducted for the purpose of analyzing the growth response of Dracaena braunii treated with chloride ions and to evaluate its salt tolerance. Distilled water (CON) was spiked with 1 (C1), 2 (C2), 5 (C5), 10 (C10) and 15 g/L (C15) $CaCl_2$, respectively. Acidity (pH) and electrical conductivity of hydroponic solution, and leaf width, leaf length, root length, number of leaves, fresh weight, dry weight and the water content of Dracaena braunii were measured. Acidity and electrical conductivity remarkably increased commensurate with increasing concentrations of $CaCl_2$. Growth in the C1 treatment was better than that in CON, whereas the C10 or C15 treatments caused either slow growth or withering of the plants. Fresh weight, dry weight and water content were significantly decreased in response to $CaCl_2$ concentration, compared with those in the control. These results showed that $CaCl_2$ concentration less than 1 g/L may be used as a hydroponic solution for D. braunii, as long as the water quality is not too saline. The chlorine ion has a negative effect on the growth.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.441-448
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• 2017

In this study, the effects of membrane characteristics on the power generation performance in reverse electrodialysis (RED) have been investigated with pore-filled ion-exchange membranes (PFIEMs) prepared by employing a porous polyethylene substrate and the mixtures of three cross-linking agents. As a result, it was confirmed through the correlation analyses that the cross-linking degree and free volume of the PFIEMs were effectively controlled by mixing the cross-linking agents having different molecular sizes, influencing complexly the electrochemical characteristics of the membranes and the power generation performance in RED. In particular, the pore-filled cation-exchange membranes at the optimum cross-linking conditions exhibited the power generation performance superior to that of the commercial membranes and the pore-filled anion-exchange membranes also showed the excellent performance close to that of the commercial membrane.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.129-137
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• 2017

In this study, we have developed cation-exchange membranes (CEMs) which can efficiently separate heavy-metal ions among the cations contained in a water system. Sulfonated polyetheretherketone (SPEEK) was used as a base polymer and a powdered chelating resin with strong binding ability to heavy-metal ions was added into it. In order to optimize the performance of the CEM, the content of chelating resin powder and the ion exchange capacity of SPEEK have been controlled. As a result, it was confirmed that the removal efficiency of heavy metal ion was improved by more than 20% by applying the CEM to membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI).

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.71-79
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• 2023

In this study, we employed anionic, cationic, and nonionic surfactants for the hydrophilization of porous substrates used in the fabrication of pore-filling membranes. We investigated the extent of hydrophilization based on the type of surfactant, its concentration, and immersion time. Furthermore, we used the hydrophilized substrates to produce pore-filling anion exchange membranes and compared their ion conductivity to determine the optimal hydrophilization conditions. For the ionic surfactants used in this study, we observed that hydrophilization progressed rapidly from the beginning of immersion when the applied concentration was 3.0 wt%, compared to lower concentrations (0.05, 0.5, and 1.0 wt%). In contrast, for the relatively larger molecular weight non-ionic surfactants, smooth hydrophilization was not observed. There was no apparent correlation between the degree of hydrophilization and the ion conductivity of the anion exchange membrane. This discrepancy suggests that an excessive hydrophilization process during the treatment of porous substrates leads to excessive adsorption of the surfactant on the sparse surfaces of the porous substrate, resulting in a significant reduction in porosity and subsequently decreasing the content of polymer electrolyte capable of ion exchange, thereby greatly increasing the electrical resistance of the membrane.