Department of Hydromechanics, KTH, Royal Institute of Technology, 10044 Stockholm, Sweden
Departamento de Ciéncies Experimentals, Univ. Jaume I, Apdo. 224, 12080 Castelló Spain
Departamento de Termodinámica, Facultad de Física, Universidad de Valencia, E-46100 Burjassot, Spain
Key Words: Bipolar Membranes I Membranes / Transport Properties
We present a set of analytical solutions to the problem of ion transport and field enhanced water dissociation in bipolar membranes. Most of the simplifying assumptions introduced in previous models have now been removed. Particular attention is paid to the effects caused by a non-abrupt, smooth junction at the cation layer/anion layer interface, the forward bias characteristics of the current-voltage curve, and the membrane electrical resistance. Despite of the coupling between ion transport and the chemical reaction responsible of the field enhanced water dissociation, the solutions derived are simple, and can readily find application in multidisciplinary fields like the biophysical modeling of biological membranes and the separation processes involving synthetic bipolar ion exchange membranes.