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Updated: Nov 3, 2025

Ion-Exchange Membranes for the Fabrication of Reverse Electrodialysis Device
Published on: July 20, 2021
A comprehensive review on the synthesis and applications of ion exchange membranes
Shanxue Jiang1, Haishu Sun2, Huijiao Wang3
1State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Food Chain Pollution Control, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing, 100048, China; Key Laboratory of Cleaner Production and Integrated Resource Utilization of China National Light Industry, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing, 100048, China; Barrer Centre, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, Exhibition Road, London, SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
Ion exchange membranes (IEMs) are undergoing prosperous development in recent years. More than 30,000 papers which are indexed by Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) have been published on IEMs during the past twenty years (2001-2020). Especially, more than 3000 papers are published in the year of 2020, revealing researchers' great interest in this area. This paper firstly reviews the different types (e.g., cation exchange membrane, anion exchange membrane, proton exchange membrane, bipolar membrane) and electrochemical properties (e.g., permselectivity, electrical resistance/ionic conductivity) of IEMs and the corresponding working principles, followed by membrane synthesis methods, including the common solution casting method. Especially, as a promising future direction, green synthesis is critically discussed. IEMs are extensively applied in various applications, which can be generalized into two big categories, where the water-based category mainly includes electrodialysis, diffusion dialysis and membrane capacitive deionization, while the energy-based category mainly includes reverse electrodialysis, fuel cells, redox flow battery and electrolysis for hydrogen production. These applications are comprehensively discussed in this paper. This review may open new possibilities for the future development of IEMs.
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