Investigating the solubility mechanism of novel ion exchange membrane in aqueous solutions

Membranes with fast and selective ion transport are widely used for water purification and energy conversion and storage devices. Despite various improvements, it remains challenging to design cost-effective, easily processable ion conductive membranes with well-defined pore architectures. We have recently developed a new generation of ion conducting membranes with superior performance to the current gold standard, Nafion. However aqueous stability limits practical device use. It is therefore pressing to reveal the structural changes upon water vs salt solution swelling of these new chemistries to help direct future designs that can overcome these issues. A combined Nimrod/Zoom experiment will provide structural information across a wide size scale to help this endeavour.