Abstract
Electrochemical study on ion transports from one aqueous (W1) to another (W2) across a liquid membrane (LM) and a bilayer lipid membrane (BLM) is reviewed. The ion transport across a membrane (M) consists of the ion transfers at W1|M and M|W2 interfaces and the ion migrations within W1, M and W2. In the presence of sufficient electrolytes in W1, M and W2, the membrane transport is demonstrated to be controlled by the complementary ion transfers at W1|M and M|W2 interfaces. The authors found that various phenomena observed with the ion transport across the BLM could be elucidated by taking into account the conjugated ion transfers at W1|BLM and BLM|W2 interfaces. The relation between the waveforms of voltammograms and physicochemical properties of added ion, coexisiting ions, lipids composing BLMs and ligands forming complexes was also clarified.
