Streaming potential and hydraulic permeation through cation-exchange membranes

Abstract

The streaming potential and the hydraulic permeation were obtained, under different experimental conditions, for a cation-exchange membrane. From the measurements we have determined the phenomenological coefficients, L-ij, that enter the equations describing electrokinetic phenomena according to the Thermodynamics of Irreversible Processes. The results obtained for the streaming potential are correlated to the results obtained for electroosmosis, under the same experimental conditions, in a previous paper. It permits us to state that Onsager's reciprocity relation holds up to 10(-1) mol/liter KCl concentration. The effective fixed charge concentration was estimated from the results of the streaming potential, hydraulic permeation and resistance of the membrane.