Abstract
Anion-exchange membranes for application to electrodialysis were prepared from commercially available polyethylene films using electron-beam-induced（EB-induced）graft polymerization. Two kinds of polyethylene, namely, high-density（HDPE）and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene（UHMWPE）, were adopted as the starting films. Chloromethylstyrene（CMS）was graft-polymerized onto the film by immersing EB-preirradiated PE film in a CMS/xylene solution. After that, the CMS-grafted film was immersed in an aqueous solution of trimethylamine to introduce the anion-exchange group. The ion-exchange capacity, water content, membrane resistance, and tensile strength were measured, along with the evaluation of performance of electrodialysis of seawater. The tensile strength of an anion-exchange membrane prepared using a HDPE film（3000 ～4000 N/cm 2 ）and a UHMPE film（4500 ～ 6000 N/cm 2 ）were found to be comparable to that of a commonly used anion-exchange membrane. An electrodialyzer fabricated using a membrane pair consisting of the developed anion-exchange membrane and the commercial cation-exchange membrane, Selemion ® CSO, exhibited a higher concentration of chloride in the concentration chamber than a pair of Selemion CSO and ASA, where 0.5 mol/L NaCl aqueous solution was used as a seawater model. The chloride concentration of the developed anion-exchange membrane was about 5 ～ 10 ％ higher than that of commercially available membranes.
