Comparing Advanced Bipolar Membranes for High-Current Electrodialysis and Membrane Electrolysis

作者：Olivia T. Vulpin, James B. Mitchell, Lihaokun Chen, Jeonghoon Lim, Sayantan Sasmal, Nathan G. Price, Sam R. Jarvis, Shannon W. Boettcher · 发表于：ACS Energy Letters · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1021/acsenergylett.4c03538 · 被引用次数：33 · 研究领域：Membrane-based Ion Separation Techniques、Fuel Cells and Related Materials、Advanced battery technologies research

Advanced bipolar membranes (BPMs) with low water-dissociation overpotential (η wd ) may enable new electrochemical technologies for electrolysis, fuel cells, acid–base synthesis, brine remediation, lithium-battery recycling, and cement production. However, these advanced BPMs have only been demonstrated in BPM water electrolysis (BPMWE) configurations where the BPM is under static compression by the porous-transport layers. It is important to study these BPMs in applications like electrodialysis where large degrees of static compression are not possible. We present a BPM electrodialysis (BPMED) platform to measure water-dissociation overpotential (η wd ) and compare BPMWE and BPMED systems. We show advanced BPMs with half the η wd compared to commercial BPMs for BPMED while maintaining ∼90% current efficiency from 0.05–0.5 A cm –2 . The BPMED η wd values are, however, about 0.2 V higher at 0.5 A cm –2 than those for BPMWE. Regardless, these results show that BPMs developed and optimized in BPMWE applications are well-suited for next-generation high-current-density BPMED technologies.