CHARACTERIZATION OF MEMBRANES FOR ELECTROCHEMICALLY AIDED GAS SEPARATION - MORPHOLOGY OF PLATINUM DEPOSITION

A novel membrane technique to effect electroinduced facilitated transp ort of ethylene in Pt-containing ion exchange membranes was recently d emonstrated. It was shown that by applying an electric current to such a membrane, the permeability of ethylene increased six-fold compared with that of an initial Pt-coated membrane without applied current. Ex periments have been carried out with platinum-coated Nafion membranes in Cu2+ ionic form to determine the permeability of ethylene. This pap er deals with the characterisation of these membranes by various techn iques, such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Rutherford backscat tering (RBS) and particle-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) techniques. A relevant literature survey is also presented. An idealised theoretical model describing concentration profiles of copper ions in various val ence states in the membrane is formulated. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B .V. All rights reserved.