Transport of silver ions through a flat-sheet supported liquid membrane

Toxic metals from industrial wastewaters are an important environmental issue. The use of supported liquid membrane processes has gained momentum in recent years, as it allows the reuse of water and toxic metals. The aim of this study is to investigate the active transport of silver ion through a supported liquid membrane (micro-porous Fluoropore PTFE) of DC18C6 (Dicyclohexano18crown6) in toluene under various experimental conditions. For this purpose, the effects of various parameters including binary carriers, carrier concentration, feed phase concentration, the nature and concentration of stripping agents in the stripping phase and flow rates of feed and stripping phases on transport efficiency were also investigated. The maximum transport efficiency was observed at the following conditions: flow rates of 50 mL/min in both phases, 0.05 M DC18C6 in toluene as carrier solution, 50 ppm Ag+ dissolved in 0.015 M HNO3 as feed solution and 0.08 M Na2S2O3 as stripping solution Optimum operation time was determined as 240 min. Under these conditions, 94% of the silver ions were transported from the feed phase to the membrane phase. However, the transport rate from the membrane phase to the stripping phase remained at approximately 81%.