Abstract
A comparative study of static characteristics, dynamic and structural was conducted on 8 ion-exchange membranes (MEIS), 4 new (IEMN) and the same used (IEMU) after two years of ED operation in the food industry. The main objective was to better understand the mechanisms of in situ ageing. We therefore measured for each IEMs exchange capacity, water content, ionic permeability, electrical conductivity, transport number, contact angle, current limit, Young's modulus and tensile strength. Therefore, we performed analysis of FTIR, SEM and EDX. This study concluded that (i) CEM2 remained almost stable after 2 years of ED, while AEM1 has sharply deteriorated. In general, the AEMs are more susceptible to ageing than CEMs, (ii) the sulfonic functional sites are eliminated from the CEMs. We cannot confirm this mechanism in the case of AEMs, but we suspect a poisoning phenomenon of functional sites, (iii) the AEMs fouled in surfaces with different degrees between AEM1 and AEM2