Ion exchange membranes containing inorganic particles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10221289-B2
Application number	US-201715613949-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 5, 2017
Priority date	Apr 12, 2013
Publication date	Mar 5, 2019
Grant date	Mar 5, 2019

Abstract

This specification describes an ion exchange membrane and a method of making it. The membrane may be used, for example, in an electrodialysis module or electrochemical cell. The membrane comprises an ion exchange polymer and inorganic particles preferably linked to the ion exchange polymer. To make a membrane, inorganic particles are mixed into an ion exchange membrane pre-cursor. A polymerization initiator or catalyst is then added and the resulting mixture is placed in a form and cured. The inorganic particles may comprise, for example, an oxidized form of graphite such as graphite oxide. The ion exchange polymer may comprise an ionic monomer, containing a quaternary ammonium group for anion exchange or a sulfonate group for cation exchange, along with a crosslinking co-monomer containing polymerizable diacrylic functionalities. The membrane is self-supporting and can be made without a supporting fabric.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A monomer of the following structure:

wherein R is —[CH 2 —CH(OH)]—W—; R 1 is hydrogen or a C 1 -C 12 alkyl group; Z is oxygen or N—R 3 ; R 2 is [CH 2 ] n —; R 3 is hydrogen or —[CH 2 ] m —CH 3 ; R 4 and R 5 are each, independently, —[CH 2 ] m —CH 3 ; X is selected from the group consisting of Cl, Br, I and acetate; W is a bridging group or atom; m is an integer from 0 to 20; and n is an integer from 1 to 20.

2. The monomer of claim 1 , wherein R is —[CH 2 —CH(OH)]—CH 2 OCH 2 —C 6 H 10 —CH 2 OCH 2 —.

3. The monomer of claim 1 , wherein R 4 and R 5 are CH 3 .

4. The monomer of claim 1 , wherein Z is N—H and R 2 is —[CH 2 ] 3 —.

5. The monomer of claim 1 having the structure:

wherein X is selected from the group consisting of Cl, Br, I and acetate.

Assignees

• Gen Electric
• Bl Technologies Inc

Inventors

• Zhang Kai
• Barber John H
• Macdonald Russell James
• Zheng Yongchang
• Goh Li May
• Gao Yan
• Zhao Yonghong

Classifications

• H01M8/227

  Dialytic cells or batteries; Reverse electrodialysis cells or batteries · CPC title

• C08J5/2231 Primary

  based on macromolecular compounds obtained by reactions involving unsaturated carbon-to-carbon bonds · CPC title

• H01M8/1051

  Non-ion-conducting additives, e.g. stabilisers, SiO2 or ZrO2 · CPC title

• Y02E60/521

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• H01M8/103

  having nitrogen, e.g. sulfonated polybenzimidazoles [S-PBI], polybenzimidazoles with phosphoric acid, sulfonated polyamides [S-PA] or sulfonated polyphosphazenes [S-PPh] · CPC title