Applying electrohydrodynamic atomization to enhance mass transfer of metal salts from an aqueous phase towards ionic liquids

• Investigate the effect of electrospray on the metal extraction with ionic liquids.
• A two coaxial nozzles configuration was developed for this purpose.
• No increase in extraction efficiencies could be observed.
• Higher separation factors were obtained.

In this work a two coaxial nozzles configuration is used to investigate whether electro hydrodynamic atomization of an ionic liquid in combination with an aqueous metal salt solution could enhance the removal of metal salts. The technique was evaluated for the removal of manganese (II), cobalt (II) calcium and sodium chloride. Good metal salt extraction was observed for the water-presaturated ionic liquid, tetraoctylammonium oleate, at an applied electrical potential of 5 kV, which was slightly lower compared to mechanical mixing, but a higher separation factor was obtained between the transition metals and the alkali and earth alkali metals.