Highly selective ion separations based on counter-flow electromigration in nanoporous membranes

Tang, Chao; Bondarenko, Mykola P.; Yaroshchuk, Andriy; Bruening, Merlin L.

doi:10.1016/j.memsci.2021.119684

Title: Highly selective ion separations based on counter-flow electromigration in nanoporous membranes

Journal Article · 05 August 2021 · Journal of Membrane Science

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2021.119684 · OSTI ID:1868530

Tang, Chao ^[1];

^[2];

^[3]; Bruening, Merlin L. ^[4]

Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States); University of Notre Dame
National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU), Kyiv (Ukraine)
Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Barcelona (Spain); ICREA, Barcelona (Spain)
Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States)

Highly selective ion separations are vital for recovering important salts, and membrane-based techniques may enable environmentally friendly ion separations that operate continuously. This study demonstrates that simply opposing convective flow with electromigration in track-etched membranes leads to remarkable selectivities among monovalent ions. Because the membrane-pore diameters are orders of magnitude larger than the ion diameters, advection moves all ions at the same velocity, whereas electrophoretic velocities are proportional to ion mobilities. Thus during counter-flow cation electromigration, less mobile cations have lower electromigration velocity components and pass through porous membranes more rapidly than more mobile cations. Using membranes with 400 nm pores, counter-flow electromigration gives Li⁺/K⁺ selectivities of 100 and Li⁺/Na⁺ selectivities around 30 in mixed-salt studies. In this work, numerical simulations based on the extended Nernst-Planck equation agree with trends in experimental data and highlight the importance of high Péclet numbers, high current-to-flow ratios, and uniform current distributions for achieving high selectivities. Importantly, experimental separations give high selectivities at 0.3 M ionic strength and low Li⁺/K⁺ ratios, which suggest these methods may also work in brine solutions. Nevertheless, energy costs for such separations are high.

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Research Organization:: Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness; The National Research Foundation of Ukraine (NRFU); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Chemical Sciences, Geosciences & Biosciences Division

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0017618

OSTI ID:: 1868530

Journal Information:: Journal of Membrane Science, Journal Name: Journal of Membrane Science Vol. 638; ISSN 0376-7388

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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