Performance enhancement of catalytic bipolar membrane based on polysulfone single base membrane for electrodialysis

To avoid the bubbling of bipolar membrane (BPM) and improve its water dissociation performance, the same base membrane material polysulfone (PSF) was chosen and graphene oxide-polyvinyl alcohol (GO-PVA) system was introduced as an intermediate layer to prepare a new series of BPMs. The effects of anion exchange layer (AEL) and intermediate layer were fully investigated from the viewpoint of voltage-current curves and water dissociation ability tests. The results demonstrated that the amounts of functional groups in the AEL and hydrophilicity of intermediate layer had significant effects on the BPM performance, and the voltage drop, energy consumption and current efficiency could be greatly modified by adjusting the functionalized degree of AEL and the content of GO mixed in PVA solution. Moreover, it turned out that the prepared BPM based on PSF single base membrane had better stability in the long-term operation, laying an important foundation for subsequent research on performance enhancement of BPMs based on single base membrane material.