Electrically conductive porous synthetic polymeric compositions, method

Abstract

There is disclosed a method for increasing the electrical conductivity of a porous synthetic polymeric material. The method comprises depositing an effective amount of a polyacetylene polymerization catalyst throughout the porous structure, subsequently exposing said material to acetylene under polymerization conditions, for a time sufficient to form polyacetylene within the porous structure, and finally doping the resultant product with a conductivity modifying amount of either an electron donor dopant or an electron acceptor dopant. There is also disclosed an improved electrodialysis process wherein an electrolyte solution is placed between opposite faces of two membranes, the first membrane being an anion exchange membrane and the second membrane being a cation exchange membrane, while being subjected to a primary electric field causing the cations in the electrolyte to pass through the cation exchange membrane and the anions to pass through the anion exchange membrane. The improvement comprises using as the cation and anion exchange membranes electrically conductive membranes on which secondary negative and positive potentials are induced, respectively, the strength of the secondary potential being less than that induced by the primary electric field.