Water Decontamination via Electrodialysis
Abstract
The single best water decontamination technique continues to be researched for by scientists globally. The purpose and subject of the decontamination determine the preferred technique to be used. For example, nanometre-sized contaminants require a different technique than those used for micrometer-scale contaminants. Recently, electrochemical membrane filtration techniques, such as electrodialysis, have gained great interest due to their capability to capture ionic contaminants. However, a lack of selective membranes continues to be a setback and so, novel polymers are under development. For this research, the sequestration behaviours of a commercial membrane and a novel phosphorus-based membrane are characterized for the application as potential metal decontaminants. A series of surface analytical and electrochemical techniques are applied to analyze the membranes and to explore their electrodialysis performance, respectively.
This work provides insight into the polymers’ ion exchange capabilities, chemical and electrochemical, contributing to the advancements required when developing ion exchange membranes for water decontamination.