Proceedings of MATSUS Spring 2025 Conference (MATSUSSpring25)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.matsusspring.2025.534
Publication date: 16th December 2024
Materials science has proven to be valuable in tuning the selectivity in the electrochemical separation of ions. In this contribution, we specifically focus on the exploration of polymers to address the selectivity of membranes and electrodes that are employed in electrochemical deionization (EDC) and electrodialysis (ED).
Several approaches with different types of polymers will be discussed. First, the build-up of a multilayer of charged polymers (poly(allylamine hydrochloride), PAH and poly(styrene sulfonate), PSS) onto commercial available cation-exchange membranes proved to be a facile and versatile approach in switching from Mg2+-selectivity to Na+-selectivity when applied in ECD [1]. Next, in the presence of a series of mineral acids (HCl, HNO3, H2SO4, and H3PO4) a conductive polymer (polyaniline, PAni) was electrodeposited onto carbon electrodes. When employed under ECD conditions, the PAni/H2SO4 system exhibits promising behavior for tuning ion selectivity [2]. Among the tested ECD electrodes, this system achieved a notable 20% reduction in chloride adsorption while maintaining consistent sulfate adsorption. Lastly, hydrophobic polymers (poly(vinylidene fluoride), PVDF, poly(vinyl chloride), PVC, polyacrylonitrile, PAN) were blended with an ionomer to obtain anion-exchange membranes.[3,4] In electrodialysis, the nitrate over chloride selectivity trend was found to be PVC > PVDF > PAN.
While evaluation of the complete set of charged, conductive, and hydrophobic polymers shows that a ‘one‐size‐fits‐all’ approach is not readily accessible when pursuing ion selectivity, the extraction of several general principles contribute to guiding the development of advanced materials set to further tune electrochemical separation.
LdS gratefully acknowledges financial support from the ERC for a Consolidator Grant (E-Motion, 682444) and a Proof-of-Concept Grant (PassIon, 101158035) and the Dutch Research Council (NWO) for a Vici Grant (Mind_Gap, 19415) and a grant from the NWO Wetsus Partnership Programme on Sustainable Water Technology (Anchor, ALWET.2019.004).
[1] Sahin, S., Dykstra, J.E., Zuilhof, H., Zornitta, R.L., de Smet, L.C.P.M. 2020. Modification of Cation-Exchange Membranes with Polyelectrolyte Multilayers to Tune Ion Selectivity in Capacitive Deionization. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 12, 34746–34754.
[2] Gamaethiralalage, J.G., Muff, J., de Smet, L.C.P.M. 2024. Effect of Dopants in Polyaniline-Coated Capacitive Deionization Electrodes on Anion Selectivity. Prog. Org. Coat., 197, 108854.
[3] Chinello, D., Post, J., de Smet, L.C.P.M. 2024. Selective Separation of Nitrate from Chloride using PVDF-based Anion-Exchange Membranes. Desalination 2024, 572, 117084.
[4] Chinello, D., Post, J., de Smet, L.C.P.M. 2025. Effect of Polymeric Matrix in Anion-Exchange Membranes on Nitrate-Chloride Separations. Sep. Purif. Technol., 355, Part A, 129440.
nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.
Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.
Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics
The main topics of the Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP) are discussed every year in Asia-Pacific for gathering the recent advances in the fields of material preparation, modeling and fabrication of perovskite and hybrid and organic materials. Photovoltaic devices are analyzed from fundamental physics and materials properties to a broad set of applications. The conference also covers the developments of perovskite optoelectronics, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.
The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.