SynopsisThe membrane potential and permeability of NaCl were measured for six crosslinked poly(viny1 alcohol-co-itaconic acid) membranes having various water contents [0.25 5 H 50.83 H20 @/swollen membrane (g)] and interpreted by means of an equation derived from Schlogl's theory. Both results of the membrane potential and the permeability of the membranes having H2 0.34 could be satisfactorily interpreted by the theory. The permeability of NaCl in the membrane of H=0.25 gave, however, a n increasing tendency with the decrease of the upstream concentration lower than 0.04 mol/L. It was considered that the concentration dependence reverse to what was caused by the Donnan exclusion might be due to the concentration dependence of the thermodynamic partition coefficient in nonfreezing water of the membrane. By the equations thus derived the membrane potential and the permeability of NaCl in the membrane of H=0.25 were explained qualitatively. The mobility ratios of Na + and C1-and the effective charge density in the membranes were discussed.
INTRODUCTIONTransport phenomena such as permeation and membrane potential of synthetic membranes have received a great deal of attention to elucidate the permeability of ions through biological and synthetic membranes.Several authors 1-5 investigated membrane potential and permeation of simple salts based on the theory of Teorel16 and Meyer and S i e v e r~.~ KObatake and co-workers8-11 derived equations from membrane potentials and salt flux considering the effective charge density. They investigated the mobilities and activity coefficients of K + and C1-in collodion-based polystyrene sulfonic acid membranes and found that the depression of mobility and activity coefficient of the counterions in the membranes could be represented by the empirical additivity rule known in polyelectrolyte solutions. Demisch and Pusch12 calculated membrane potential and resistance for binary and ternary electrolyte solutions employing Schlogl's eq~ati0ns.l~ The mobility ratios of the cations and the anions were estimated from membrane potential in weak and strong cation exchange membranes. Minoura and Nakagawa14 measured the membrane potential of poly(a-amino acid) membranes and found that the mobility ratios of Na+ and Li+ to K + in the membranes were larger than those in aqueous solution. Kinoshita et al.15 studied ionic salt permeabilities and membrane potentials of charged polypeptide membranes. They applied free volume theory to the temperature dependence of ionic permeability and concluded that the magnitude of ionic permeability depends on the free volume of the membranes, the effective charge density of the membranes, and the critical ionic diffusant
EXPERIMENTAL MaterialsPoly(viny1 alcohol-co-itaconic acid) (PVA-IA) used in this investigation was kindly supplied by Kuraray Co., Ltd. and was employed after Soxhlet extraction with methanol for 12 h. PVA-IA has 1.3 mol % of itaconic acid, its saponification value is 97.7 mol %, and its degree of polymerization is 1750, respectively. Distille...