ChE PhD Candidate Subarna Kole Published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A

Congrats to Subarna Kole on her recent publication "Bipolar membrane polarization behavior with systematically varied interfacial areas in the junction region" in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A. Bipolar membranes are electrolyte separators used in electrochemical water treatment, energy conversion, and chemical manufacturing (e.g., electrodialysis, unitized regenerative fuel cells, and carbon dioxide electrolyzers). Subarna's work revealed that a 2x increase in interfacial area in the bipolar junction region significantly improved the energy efficiency of water-splitting in bipolar membranes. This is the first report of bipolar membranes prepared from alkaline stable polymers and all-perfluorinated polymers - that latter being important for membrane cleaning with chlorine solutions. The project was sponsored by NSF and included co-authors from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

View the full article at https://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2021/TA/D0TA10602J?fbclid=IwAR3hIGaj0oJmbfcoMtzC-qvXf7ceivqM-5x6egW_mYRIaDdkY0wMiKcLrfQ#!divAbstract.