US 12,255,369 B2Granted

Zipped ion-exchange membrane

AssigneeENI S.p.A.

InventorsChiara Gambaro, Laura Meda, Vito Di Noto, Keti Vezzu', Chuanyu Sun

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Abstract

A zipped ion-exchange membrane (Z-IEM) having at least one cation-exchange polyelectrolyte (CEP) crosslinked with at least one anion-exchange polyelectrolyte (AEP), wherein the CEP has a molar fraction of positive charges (x) so that: (i) when x=0.5, the Z-IEM is a completely neutralized ion-exchange membrane; (ii) when x>0.5, the Z-IEM is a cation-conducting ion-exchange membrane; (iii) when x<0.5, the Z-IEM is an anion-conducting ion-exchange membrane. The above zipped ion-exchange membrane (Z-IEM): (i) is based on a polymeric matrix; (ii) is endowed with a high conductivity for ionic species such as either H3O+, OH− or halides such as F−, Cl−, Br−, and I−; and (iii) is able to block as much as possible the crossover of other ionic species, such as: cations such as V2+, V3+, VO2+, VO2+, Fe2+, Fe3+, Cr2+, Cr3+, Ce3+, Ce4+, Ti3+, Ti4+, Mn2+, Mn3+, Zn2+, Pb2+, Np3+, Np4+, NpO22+, NpO2+, Li+, Na+, K+, Rb+, Cs+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Sr2+, Ba2+; and anions such as F−, BF4−, Cl−, ClO−, ClO2−, ClO3−, ClO4−, Br−, Br3−, I−, I3−.

Claims12

Dependent claims

A zipped ion-exchange membrane (Z-IEM) comprising at least one cation-exchange polyelectrolyte (CEP) crosslinked with at least one anion-exchange polyelectrolyte (AEP), wherein the CEP has a molar fraction of positive charges (x) so that:

(i) when x=0.5, the Z-IEM is a completely neutralized IEM;
(ii) when x>0.5, the Z-IEM is a cation-conducting IEM;
and
(iii) when x<0.5, the Z-IEM is an anion-conducting IEM
wherein said zipped ion-exchange membrane is a membrane having a molecular structure wherein a first macromolecular chain bearing positive charges is coupled to a second macromolecular chain bearing negative charges, the coupling being given by electrostatic interaction between opposite charges facing each other;
and wherein throughout the Z-IEM, neighboring acceptor functional groups bearing positive charges found on AEPs interact with neighboring electron donor functional groups bearing negative charges found on CEPs so that in the Z-IEM the backbone chains of each AEP-CEP interacting system run substantially parallel to one another at the interface in a zip-zone, wherein ordered arrays of donor-acceptor bonds are formed.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 17/632,102Filed 30 Jul 2020
Priority: IT 1020190000137341 Aug 2019
Published: US 2022/0278346 A11 Sep 2022
Granted: 18 Mar 2025
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification16 codes

H01M 8/1044
Polymer electrolyte composites, mixtures or blends: mixtures of polymers, of which at least one is ionically conductive
H01M 8/1023
Characterised by the chemical structure of the main chain of the ion-conducting polymer: having only carbon, e.g. polyarylenes, polystyrenes or…
H01M 8/1025
Characterised by the chemical structure of the main chain of the ion-conducting polymer: having only carbon and oxygen, e.g. polyethers,…
H01M 8/1027
Characterised by the chemical structure of the main chain of the ion-conducting polymer: having carbon, oxygen and other atoms, e.g. sulfonated…