The performance of MCDI: the effect of sulfosuccinic acid ratio in the PVA-based cation exchange membrane.

In this study, through the cross-linking reaction of sulfosuccinic acid (SSA) and glutaric anhydride (GA) with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), PVA/SSA/GA composite membranes were fabricated, and the effect of SSA content was investigated. The increase of SSA in the cation exchange membrane helps ameliorate the physical properties such as stress at break, elongation at break, and swelling behavior as well as cation exchange capacity. For the desalination test, PVA/SSA/GA composite solution was coated on the electrode, which exhibited enhanced performance compared to commercial ion exchange membrane. The fabricated membrane could also be utilized for 10 cycles of desalination process without any deterioration in the salt adsorption capacity, indicating that the PVA/SSA/GA membrane is a suitable candidate to be utilized in the MCDI systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]