Abstract
We investigated the temperature dependence of the membrane properties of poly(vinyl alcohol)(PVA)-based ion-exchange membranes(IEMs): an anion-exchange membrane(PVA-AEM)and a cation-exchange membrane(PVA-CEM)to measure the water content, transport number and membrane resistance of the IEMs at various temperatures(from 10 to 50 ℃). The water content of the IEMs was higher than that of commercial IEMs: Neosepta® CMX and AMX, especially at high temperatures. The transport numbers of PVA-CEM and PVA-AEM at 10 ℃ were 0.97 and 0.98, respectively, almost the same as that of the commercial IEMs. The transport numbers of the IEMs as well as the commercial IEMs decreased with increasing temperature; however, PVA-CEM and PVA-AEM still had relative high transport numbers, 0.90 and 0.92, respectively, at 50 ℃. The membrane resistance of PVA-CEM and PVA-AEM were lower than that of CMX and AMX, respectively, at all the measured temperatures.