A mass transfer model for type-II-facilitated transport in liquid membranes

Abstract

A model for type-II-facilitated transport in liquid surfactant membranes (LSM) has been developed by taking into account the mass transfer and first-order reactions both inside and outside the emulsion globules. A perturbation solution to the resulting nonlinear equations is presented. In general, the zero-order or pseudo-steady-state solution is adequate to describe the extraction process in LSM. The model predictions show that the interfacial resistance around the emulsion globules has significant effect on the mass transfer in LSM. The model predictions are in good agreement with the experimental data on the batch extraction of gold with LSM.