Flux enhancement of stagnant sandwich compared to supported liquid membrane systems in the removal of Gemfibrozil from waters

Removal of the drug Gemfibrozil (GEM), as a target molecule, from aqueous media by using a carrier mediated transport in supported liquid membrane (SLM) and Stagnant Sandwich LM (SSwLM) systems has been investigated. Optimal chemical conditions to use in the transport tests were determined by means of solubility and liquid–liquid extraction tests. The results showed that the best LM phase to realize stable LM systems was tributylphosphate (TBP) 30% (v/v) in n-decane. Transport tests by using the “traditional” SLM system showed an average flux JAV(0–CTT) of 0.421 mmol h−1 m−2 and a system stability of 1410 min. Three different microfiltration membranes, GH-Polypro, FP-Vericel and Supor 200, made of polypropylene, polyvinylidene fluoride and polyethersulphone polymers, respectively, were used to assemble the SSwLM. Contact angle and adsorption measurements evidenced hydrophilic/lypophilic character of the supports. The best results in terms of average flux (0.873 mmol h−1 m−2), permeability coefficient (21.88 L h−1 m−2) and stability (7170 min ≈120 h) were obtained by using the SSwLM made with the Supor 200 support. The overall results showed that the SSwLM made with this type of support achieves both high flux and high stability compared to the SLM. Thus SSwLMs seems very interesting to employ transport in LM for removing molecular species (e.g. drugs) from aqueous solutions.