Electro-osmosis permeability

F. Paritosh, S. Murad. Molecular simulation of osmosis and reverse osmosis in aqueous electrolyte solutions. AIChE J 42 2984, 1996 S. Murad, K. Oder, J. Lin. Molecular simulation of osmosis, reverse osmosis, and electro-osmosis in aqueous and methanolic electrolyte solutions. Mol Phys 95 401, 1998 J. G. Powles, S. Murad. The molecular simulation of semi-permeable membranes—osmosis, reverse osmosis and electro-osmosis. J Mol Liq 75 225, 1998. 

S. Murad, R. Madhusudan, J. G. Powles. A molecular simulation to investigate the possibility of electro-osmosis in non-ionic solutions with uniform electric fields. Mol Phys 90 671, 1997 R. Madhususan, J. Lin, S. Murad. Molecular simulations of electro-osmosis in fluid mixtures using semi-permeable membranes. Eluid Phase Equil 150 91, 1998. 

Clays are generally considered to be effective barriers for flow of water and solutes due to their low permeability and high ion adsorption capacity. However, as environmental criteria for the emission of contaminants and water from clay barriers become increasingly stringent, it is crucial to be aware of all relevant driving forces and fluxes and to take them into account in model assessments. In this respect the processes of chemical and electro-osmosis may not be neglected in clayey materials of hydraulic conductivity < 10-9 m/s [7], At these low conductivities the surface charge of the clay particles and the counter-ion accumulation in diffuse double layers enable explanation and quantification of osmotic processes and semi-permeability in clays [1],... 

With plugs and capillaries a number of electrokinetlc (streaming potentials, electro-osmosis, streaming currents) and related phenomena (conductivity, permeability) can be measured, all of these requiring a different mode of operation. 

According to Eq. 6.11, the DMFC determination of the methanol permeability requires the knowledge of the methanol drag factor, because the electro-osmotic flux could afford for a considerable fraction of the methanol flow, particularly at high methanol concentrations. An important drawback of this method is that the methanol drag coefficient is not well known, so Ren et al. [299] assumed that it was similar to the water drag coefficient ( =2.5). However, some recent NMR [300] and electro-osmosis [301] studies would indicate that this assumption is not valid, leading to considerable uncertainties in the methanol permeability coefficients determined by this method. 

Let us consider now an external pressure gradient VP applied to the same porous material. Again, the solvent and charge fluxes are proportional to the driving force VP. Thus, the permeability tensor K and the electro-osmosis tensor a are defined by... 

Besides electrokinetic transport, chemical reactions also occur at the electrode surfaces (i.e., water electrolysis reactions with production of at the anode and OH at the cathode). Common mass-transport mechanisms like diffusion or convection and physical and chemical interactions of the species with the medium also occur. In a low-permeable porous medium under an electrical field, the major transport mechanism through the soil matrix during treatment for nonionic chemical species consists mainly of electro-osmosis, electrophoresis, molecular diffusion, hydrodynamic dispersion (molecular diffusion and dispersion varying with the heterogeneity of soils and fluid velocity [8]), sorption/ desorption, and chemical or biochemical reactions. Since related experiments are conducted in a relatively short period of time, the chemical and biochemical reactions that occur in the soil water are neglected [9]. 

A phenomenon that without a doubt is connected with electro-osmosis is the abnormal osmosis, known already to Graham, but especially investigated by Loeb When two solutions of different concentrations are separated by a semi-permeable membrane, the normal osmotic movement is a transport of the solvent from the more dilute to the more concentrated phase. In many cases however, if the membrane is not rigorously impermeable to the solute a transport of liquid in the opposite direction is observed. 

Electrodialysis. In reverse osmosis pressure achieves the mass transfer. In electro dialysis (qv), dc is appHed to a series of alternating cationic and anionic membranes. Anions pass through the anion-permeable membranes but are prevented from migrating by the cationic permeable membranes. Only ionic species are separated by this method, whereas reverse osmosis can deal with nonionic species. The advantages and disadvantages of reverse osmosis are shared by electro dialysis. 

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