Abstract
New materials, such as polymer inclusion membranes, can be used for water and wastewater treatment. In this paper, the selective transport of silver(I) and zinc(II) ions from nitrate solutions through the polymer inclusion membranes (PIMs), which consist of cellulose triacetate as a polymeric support, o-nitrophenyl pentyl ether as a plasticizer, and either 1-hexylimidazole (1) or 1-hexyl-2-methylimidazole (2) as an ion carrier, is studied. Both Zn(II) and Ag(I) model solutions (CM = 0.001 M, pH = 6.5), as well as the solutions after the leaching of a spent battery with a silver–zinc cell (silver-oxide battery), are tested. The results show that Zn(II) ions are effectively transported through PIMs containing either carrier, whereas Ag(I) is more easily transported through PIMs doped with (1). In the case of the leaching solution after 24 h transport, the recovery coefficients of Ag(I) and Zn(II) for PIMs doped with (1) are 86% and 90%, respectively, and for PIMs doped with (2), 47% and 94%, respectively. The influence of basicity and structure of carrier molecules on transport kinetics is discussed as well. PIMs are characterized by using an atomic force microscopy (AFM) technique.
Highlights
The world’s silver reserves are estimated at approximately 540,000 Mg
polymer inclusion membranes (PIMs) are characterized by using an atomic force microscopy (AFM) technique
The processing of waste materials is important as the largest producers obtain only 252 g of silver on average from 1 Mg of ore, and Boliden obtains 1 kg of silver on average from 1 Mg of waste mobile phones
Summary
22,000 Mg of this metal is extracted from ore These data show that in approximately 25 years, silver reserves may be depleted. Over the last 10 years, average annual silver recovery has constituted only 6600 Mg of silver, which is approximately 22% of the annual supply of this raw material [1]. This level varies greatly from country to country. In Sweden, Boliden produces approximately 150 Mg of silver from electronic waste (25% of its production) annually, whereas in the USA in 2015, only 21 Mg out of every 186 Mg of consumed silver was recycled, i.e., approximately 11%. Not all waste materials containing silver, including silver–zinc batteries, containing approximately 31%
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