Fabrication of a novel polymer inclusion membrane from recycled polyvinyl chloride for the real-time extraction of arsenic (V) from water samples in a continuous process

Abstract

In this work, the integration of recycled polyvinyl chloride (PVC) material as a base polymer and benzalkonium chloride (BAC) as an extractant to develop low-cost Polymer Inclusion Membranes (PIM) for the extraction of Arsenic (V) from water. Notably, the production of 1 m2 of PIM may cost approximately 0.0016$. It was found that 10% of recycled PVC can be easily substituted with the base polymer without much efficiency variation. The extraction efficiency of As(V) for PVC/BAC/Dioctyl phthalate (DOP) and PVC+recycled PVC (RPVC)/BAC/DOP membranes were around only 57.8 ± 1% and 56.2 ± 1%, respectively. To overcome such a less efficient barrier, we have designed a device that increased the final extraction capability of 100 mgL-1 concentration of As(V) to ~91 ± 1% over 100 h working at the consistent operating conditions be used for wastewater treatment-based industries. Thus, the developed PIM membrane permits the transport of As(V) at higher concentrations for different natural waters spiked with 100 ppm As(V). Herein, we did not observe any matrix effect on As(V) transport efficiency with different waters except seawater, which contains a high level of ions. Furthermore, the effect of biofilm growth on the surface of PIMs has been inspected for a period of beyond 10 days. Therefore, the novel low-cost PIM device can be used in metal and alloy-based industries to extract As(V) from contaminated wastewater efficiently.