Nanoporous membranes with high ionic conductivity are advantageous in such electrochemical processes as (reverse) electrodialysis, capacitive deionization, and hydrogen energy conversion. In membranes with electrically conductive surface, the conductivity can be regulated by varying the surface potential. This work is devoted to the theoretical study of switchable ionic conductivity. The transport of ions is described by the 2D space charge model and 1D uniform potential model taking into account the Stern layer. The conductivity decreases with lowering the Stern layer permittivity due to enhanced screening of electronic surface charge. The growth of surface potential leads to the conductivity enhancement due to accumulation of more counter‐ions inside the nanopore. For nanopores with constant surface charge density, the ionic conductivity follows the bulk electrolyte conductivity at high ion concentrations, and becomes independent of concentration when the latter is low. In contrast, the nanopores with constant surface potential demonstrate a linear decrease of conductivity with lowering the logarithm of ion concentration. The deviation between 1D and 2D models becomes noticeable at higher values of Stern layer permittivity, pore radius, electrolyte concentration, and surface potential. The proposed models are verified by comparison with experimental data on pure water conductivity in charged porous matrix.
The ionic conductivity of nanopores with electrically conductive surface is investigated theoretically. The generalization of two-dimensional (2D) Space–charge model to calculating the ion transport under the applied potential gradient in a nanopore with constant surface potential is proposed for the first time. The results are compared with one-dimensional (1D) Uniform potential model, which is derived from the Space–charge model by assuming the independence of potential, ion concentrations, and pressure on the radial coordinate. We have found that the increase of surface potential magnitude leads to the enhancement of conductivity due to the increase of counter–ion concentration inside the nanopore. It is shown that the 1D and 2D models provide close results when the pore radius is smaller than the Debye length. Otherwise, the 1D model essentially overestimates the ionic conductivity. According to the 2D model, the ionic conductivity decreases with increasing the nanopore radius, while the 1D model predicts the opposite trend, which is not physically correct
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