Separation study of mercury through an emulsion liquid membrane

A study of the transport of Hg(II) ions through a tri-n-octylamine (TOA) - sorbital monooleate (Span 80) toluene liquid membrane has been performed with varying concentrations of HCl, KCI, TOA, Span 80 and NaOH in the feed, membrane and stripping solutions. Maximum transport was observed with 0.01 M KCl, 2.5 x 10(-2) M HCl, 1.5 x 10(-2) M TOA, 3% (w/v) Span 80 and 0.05 M NaOH. With this system, mercury could be completely separated from Cu, Zn, Fe, Co, Ni, Pb, Mn and Cd. The transport mechanism of this metal ion through the membrane is based on the association of metal anions (HgCl42-) with protonated TOA molecules at the feed-side interface, diffusion through the membrane, decomposition of the complex at the strip-solution-side membrane interface under alkaline conditions, and backdiffusion of TOA molecules. Transport with the membrane is dependent on the concentration gradient but in the surrounding solutions it is inversely related to the concentration gradient.