Measurements of transient membrane potential after current switch-off as a tool to study the electrochemical properties of supported thin nanoporous layers.

We have studied the potential of chronopotentiometry after current switch-off as a tool for electrochemical characterization of thin supported nanoporous layers. Within the scope of this technique, a thin supported electrochemically active layer is polarized by direct electric current until a steady state is reached. After that, the current is switched-off in a stepwise manner, and the reading of transient membrane potential begins. A linear non-steady-state theory of the method has been developed in terms of a model-independent approach of network thermodynamics. The measurements of transient membrane potential after current switch-off have been carried out in KCl solutions of various concentrations for a commercially available nanofiltration membrane (Desal5 DK). Such membranes consist of micron-thick active (or barrier) nanoporous layers and much thicker (100-200 microm) and coarse-porous supports (the pore size usually is 0.1-5 microm). The reproducibility of the method has been found to be quite reasonable especially in not too dilute electrolyte solutions and at not too short times (> or = 10 ms). The relaxation measurements have been complemented by the measurements of the steady-state membrane potential and by sample measurements of salt rejection in the pressure-driven mode, which enabled us to carry out a self-consistent interpretation of the experimental data. This has revealed, in particular, that the ion rejection mechanism related to the fixed electric charges is not the dominant one in the case of the Desal5 DK nanofiltration membrane. Proceeding from a quantitative interpretation of relaxation patterns, we could also determine some properties of membrane support, namely, the porosity and the salt diffusivity. They have been found to have reasonable values remarkably independent of salt concentration, which confirms the self-consistency of our interpretations.