ANION EXCHANGE MEMBRANE FOR ELECTRODIALYSIS APPLICATIONS AND PROCESS FOR THE PREPARATION THEREOF

摘要

The present invention relates to the preparation of novel anion exchange membranes from bicomponent or tricomponent copolymers containing both quatemizable and cross-linkable moieties. The bicomponent copolymers are copolymers of acrylonitrile and 2-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate and the tricomponent copolymers are terpolymers of acrylonitrile, 2-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate and n-butyl acrylate. Quaternization of dimethyl amino groups of copolymer by methyl iodide followed by crosslinking of acrylonitrile groups of copolymer by hydrazine hydrate resulted anion exchange membrane with desired properties such as high ion exchange capacity (1.30-1.50 meq/g) and high transport number (0.92-0.93) for direct use in a electrodialysis unit. The tricomponent anion exchange membrane containing 32 wt% PDMA, 17. wt% PnBA, and 51 wt% PAN exhibited improved performance mainly in terms of low power consumption and high current efficiency during desalination of water.