How does Nafion work?

Nafion™ polymer functions as an ion exchange resin when exposed to solutions. The sulfonic acid groups form ionic channels through the bulk hydrophobic polymer, and water is very readily transported through these channels. Nafion™ polymer functions like a very selective, semi-permeable membrane to water vapor.

How does a Nafion dryer work?

Nafion functions essentially as a highly selective, semi-permeable membrane to water vapor. If gases inside Nafion tubing are wetter than gases surrounding the tubing, drying will occur. If the surrounding gases are wetter, humidification will occur. In the simplest case, a strand of Nafion is suspended in ambient air.

What is Nafion tubing?

Nafion tubing is a highly selective, semi-permeable membrane to water vapor. In normal use, a portion of Nafion tubing is used as a portion of the tube between a gas sample stream and a sensor. If the sample stream is much wetter than ambient air (such as breath samples), the sample falls to ambient humidity.

How do you humidify gas?

Methods of Gas Humidification

1. Water-to-Gas Humidifers. Environics uses water-to-gas humidifiers constructed with Nafion™ tubing.
2. Bubblers. Another type of gas humidification is through a bubbler.
3. Gas-to-Gas Humidifiers.

Is Nafion expensive?

The current state-of-the-art membrane, NAFION is too expensive, lacks selectivity, permitting leakage between anode and cathode electrolyte compartments.

Is Nafion an electrolyte?

Nafion is a polymer electrolyte membrane material giving polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC)s, their name. It is undoubtly the most successful and widely-used polymeric proton conductor for low-temperature fuel cells (Mauritz and Moore, 2004).

What is Nafion membrane where it is used?

Nafion can be cast into thin films by heating in aqueous alcohol at 250 °C in an autoclave. By this process, Nafion can be used to generate composite films, coat electrodes, or repair damaged membranes.

What is a permeation dryer?

Perma Pure MD™-Series gas dryers use exclusive Nafion selectively permeable membrane tubing to continuously dry gas streams removing only water vapor. These dryers operate over a wide range of temperatures, pressures and flow rates, and dry to dew points as low as -45°C.

What is a gas humidifier?

A gas humidifier is a device used to add water vapor to gas flow to create an exact relative humidity (RH). Gas humidifiers are often used to humidify gases that have no water-soluble components. They also humidify air which needs to be used in other processes, such as gas blending.

What is Nafion made from?

Nafion is a copolymer of tetrafluoroethylene (Teflon) and perfluoro-3,6-dioxa-4-methyl-7-octene-sulfonic acid. Like Teflon, Nafion is highly resistant to chemical attack, but the presence of its exposed sulfonic acid groups confers unusual properties.

Is Nafion a plastic?

Nafion is a brand of the Chemours company. It is the first of a class of synthetic polymers with ionic properties that are called ionomers….Nafion.