Mass transfer mechanism and chemical stability of strongly basic anion-exchange membranes under overlimiting current conditions

The dynamics of changes in overall and partial voltammetric characteristics with respect to chloride and hydroxide ions is studied by the method of rotating membrane disk (RMD) under the conditions of stabilized diffusion layer thickness for the original strongly basic MA-41P and homogeneous AMX membranes and also for the modified heterogeneous MA-41P-M membrane at high current densities. For unmodified anion-exchange membranes at currents exceeding the limiting value, the hydrolysis of fixed ammonium bases produces secondary and ternary amino groups which are catalytically active in the reaction of water molecule dissociation. The hydrolysis of amino groups in the membrane surface layer is the mechanism of degradation of electrochemical characteristics of strongly basic membranes. This results in the increase of transport numbers with respect to hydroxide ions and weakening of mass transfer with respect to salt ions. For the surface-modified heterogeneous anion-exchange membranes, no degradation of electrochemical characteristics is observed. The characteristics of the surface-modified MA-41P-M membrane remain stable: after long-term operation of the energized membrane, the partial currents with respect to hydroxide ions are close to zero and the mass transfer with respect to salt ions is considerably intensified. The dependences of the thickness of the hydrolyzed layer of a strongly basic anion-exchange membrane on the time of its exposure to solutions of high pH are determined. An original method is developed for determination of the hydrolyzed layer thickness for strongly-basic anion-exchange membranes, which is based on the copper ability to form stable complex compounds with weakly basic amino groups of anion-exchange membranes.