Improving the water dissociation efficiency in a bipolar membrane with amino-functionalized MIL-101

Abstract As a crucial part of a bipolar membrane electrodialysis, the optimization of bipolar membranes is of great significance. In this work, a bipolar membrane using Fe-MIL-101-NH 2 as its interfacial layer was initiated, and the effect of the concentration of sprayed Fe-MIL-101-NH 2 was fully investigated from the viewpoints of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and current-voltage (I-V) curves. The results show that Fe-MIL-101-NH 2 can accelerate water splitting in bipolar membranes and that the loading amount of Fe-MIL-101-NH 2 at the interface significantly affects the membrane performance; an appropriate loading concentration of 0.1 g/L can facilitate the formation of a neat cross-surface between the anion and cation layers and helps to achieve the best membrane performance.