New ion exchange membrane derived from sulfochlorated polyether sulfone for electrodialysis desalination of brackish water

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to study the desalination of brackish water using a new ion exchange membrane, made from sulfochlorated polyethersulfone (Cl-PES), and crosslinked using aminated polyethersulfone (NH2-PES) as a crosslinking reagent. This membrane, named ClNH2 membrane, has been obtained by reaction between Cl-PES with 1.3 SO2Cl groups per monomer unit and 0.2 equivalent amount of NH2-PES. ClNH2 membrane has been characterized in terms of contact angle, transport number, intrinsic conductivity, and water uptake (as a function of temperature). Electrodialysis performances of the newly synthetized membranes have been measured using an electrodialysis cell at a laboratory scale and compared to commercial membranes. All the experiments have been performed using synthetic brackish water solutions prepared from sodium chloride salts with different concentrations (varying from 0.5 to 5.0 g/L). The concentration of different water samples obtained has been found to be below the amount recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for drinking water.