Transport and selectivity of indium through polymer inclusion membrane in hydrochloric acid medium

• Published in: Frontiers of environmental science & engineering 2017-12, Vol.11 (6), p.79-88, Article 9
• Main Authors: Meng, Xiaorong, Wang, Conghui, Zhou, Pan, Xin, Xiaoqiang, Wang, Lei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acidity; Boundary layers; Carrier density; Chemical reactions; Copper; Cu(II); D2EHPA; Earth and Environmental Science; Environment; Hydrochloric acid; In(III); Membranes; pH effects; Polymer inclusion membrane; Polymers; Polyvinyl chloride; Research Article; Selective transport; Selectivity; Separation; Stability; Thickness
• ISSN: 2095-2201; 2095-221X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11783-017-0950-6

In the present paper, a polymer inclusion membrane （PIM） containing polyvinyl chloride （PVC）, and bis-（2-ethylhexyl） phosphate （D2EHPA） which was used as extracting agent was used for the recovery of In（Ⅲ） ions in hydrochloric acid medium. The effects of carrier concentration, feed phase pH, strip phase HCI concentration, temperature on the transport, and the membrane＇s stability and thickness were examined. And the conditions for the selective separation of In（Ⅲ） and CU（Ⅱ） were optimized. The results showed that the transport of In（Ⅲ） across PIM was consistent with the first order kinetics equation, and also it was controlled by both the diffusion of the metal complex in the membrane and the chemical reaction at the interface of the boundary layers. The transport flux （J0） was inversely proportional to the membrane thickness, however, the transport stability improved as the membrane thickness increased. The transport flux of In（Ⅲ） and CU（Ⅱ） was decreased by excessive acidity of feed phase and high concentration of Cl^- . The selectivity separation coefficient of In（Ⅲ）/Cu（Ⅱ） was up to 34.33 when the original concentration of both In（Ⅲ） and Cu（Ⅱ） was 80 mg· L^ -1 as well as the pH of the feed phase and the concentration of Cl^- in the adjusting context were 0.6 and 0.5 mol· L^-1, respectively. Within the range of pH = 1-3, the separation selectivity of In（Ⅲ）/Cu（Ⅱ） reached the peak in the case when the Cl^- concentration was 0.7 mol·L^ -1.