Facilitated transport of cadmium by bulk liquid membrane using Aliquat 336 as carrier: separation from other heavy metal ions

Abstract

AbstractEfficient transport of cadmium ions from chloride solutions through a bulk liquid membrane was studied at 25°C using Aliquat 336 in chloroform as carrier solution. The influence of different parameters, including chloride concentration in the feed solution, reagent concentration and type of organic solvent in the membrane phase, and type of stripping solution as the receiving phase was investigated. The transport yield of cadmium ions from a 0.05 mol L−1 sodium chloride solution (pH = 6) through a chloroform solution of Aliquat 336 (0.025 mol L−1) into the receiving phase (distilled water) was found to be 93(±1.3) % after 3 h. The efficiency and selectivity of the method were investigated by competitive experiments on the mixture of Cd2+ with Co2+, Ni2+, Cu2+, Fe3+, Pb2+, Mn2+ and Zn2+ ions. The accessibility of the method was tested for recovery of Cd from Ni–Cd cake (zinc plant purification cake), spent Ni–Cd cells and wastewater samples.