ELECTRICAL-CONDUCTIVITY OF CATIONIC POLY(VINYL ALCOHOL) MEMBRANES HAVING QUATERNARY AMMONIUM GROUPS

Conductivities of poly (vinyl alcohol) membranes having three kinds of quaternary ammonium groups have been measured at 25-degrees-C at equilibrium with 10(-3)-1 mol-l NaCl, NaBr, NaI, NaNO3 and NaClO4 aqueous solutions. The results are discussed for two salt concentration ranges; sufficiently low to give almost concentration-independent conductivities and moderate to high to give increasing or decreasing conductivities with the salt concentration. The order of the conductivities in the low salt concentration range was interpreted in terms of the crystallographic anion size, while the concentration dependencies of the conductivities in the higher salt concentration range were interpreted in terms of the size of the hydrated anions, membrane hydration, and the contribution of the structural relaxation of the membrane.