Irreversible Electrochemical Processes in Membranes. II. Effects of Solvent Flow

Abstract

The correlation of the osmotic flow of the electrolyte solution with the membrane potential and the ionic permeability is discussed from the standpoint of the irreversible thermodynamics of continuous systems. The entropy production in the membrane having a porous structure is evaluated by means of hydrodynamical calculation taking into account the pressure, concentration, and electric potential gradient under the assumption that the ionic concentration can be determined by the Debye-Hückel approximation even in the membrane capillaries. From this entropy production a new equation for the volume flow is derived which enables us to give a reasonable explanation of the ``abnormal osmosis.'' The equations for the membrane potential and for the ionic permeability derived similarly from the entropy production contain the additional terms due to the solvent flow in comparison with the theoretical ones given in the previous paper. The new equation for the membrane potential is found to be more satisfactory than the previous one.