Poly(vinyl chloride)-Based Anion-Exchange Membrane with High-Antifouling Potential for Electrodialysis Application

The development of facile approaches to fabricate cost-effective anion-exchange membranes (AEMs) with desirable antifouling potential can promote wider AEM-based applications. In this work, we report an easy method for the preparation of AEMs using cost-effective poly­(vinyl chloride) (PVC) via immersing the PVC films in triethylenetetramine (TETA) solution under mild conditions. The as-prepared AEMs with low surface area resistance in a range of 1.33–5.94 Ω·cm2 have the cross-linking structure, possessing good membrane integrity in dimethylacetamide (DMAc) for 30 days at room temperature, which has been experimentally evidenced. Our investigations demonstrate that the as-prepared AEMs show a superior antifouling potential with the longest transition time (>2100 min) using sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate as a model foulant (relative to commercial JAM-II-5 AEM of 170 min). Possibly, the suppressed affinity interactions (π–π interaction) from the aliphatic matrix and the physical isolation contribute to the enhanced antifouling performance through electrostatic repulsion between foulants and membrane surface. In addition, electrodialysis (ED) with the optimized AEM show NaCl removal ratio of 90.2%, current efficiency of 65.8%, and energy consumption of 1.99 kW·h·kg–1 NaCl, outperforming those of JAM-II-5 AEM (80.7%; 64.5%; 4.43 kW·h·kg–1 NaCl), respectively. This facile preparation of AEMs with good performance indicates its potential application.