SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF NEW ION-EXCHANGE MEMBRANES

The synthesis of grafted polymers of polyethylene (PE) with acrylic acid and N,N-dimethylamino-2 ethyl acrylate is performed in two steps. The first one needed the ozonization of powder of PE in well-defined conditions to obtain an expected activation. The second one consisted in bulk grafting the two monomers by thermal decomposition of the above hydroperoxides and peroxides of the activated PE. After elimination of homoacrylated by selective solubilization, we obtained films by pressing the copolymers either alone or the mixture of the two copolymers to prepare the anion (or cation) exchange membrane and the amphoteric ion-exchange membrane. The second part of the study deals with the physicochemical characterization of these membranes: thickness, exchange capacity, electrical resistance, transport number, and water content. These characteristics are given for various concentrations of equilibrating solutions and for various pH. The results show that we have perfectly corrected membranes that are competitive with the commercial ones.