Removal and recovery of palladium(II) ions from water using micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration with a cationic surfactant

The removal of palladium, present as Pd(II), from aqueous solutions has been performed by a micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration process employing the cationic surfactant dodecyl-trimethylammonium chloride (DTAC). The effect of surfactant concentration and solution pH were investigated. Addition of DTAC at concentrations above the critical micellar concentration results in Pd(II) removal exceeding 95%.The possibility of Pd(II) recovery from the retentate was also examined. After the ultrafiltration process, metal ions are concentrated on the micelle surface. The addition of a strong electrolyte can be very useful to expel the metal from the micelles. Our results show that addition of aqueous MgCl2 at a concentration of 0.8 M enables us to recover palladium with a yield of 66%.