Abstract
Transport process of germanium from an aqueous solution containing oxalic acid and 100 mg/L Ge was studied. Cyanex 923 immobilized in a polytetrafluoroethylene membrane was employed as a carrier in a flat-sheet supported liquid membrane (FSSLM) system. The speciation of the germanium ion in the oxalic acid medium and related diagrams were applied to study the transport of germanium. The effective parameters such as oxalic acid, carrier concentration, and strip reagent composition were evaluated in this study. Based on the experimental data, the oxalic acid and carrier concentrations of 0.075 mol/L and 20% v/v were the condition in which the efficient germanium transport was achieved, respectively. The concentration range of 0.04–0.1 mol/L was selected for sodium hydroxide (NaOH) as a strip reagent providing the best efficiency to transport germanium through the supported liquid membrane (SLM) system. Furthermore, the permeation model was obtained to calculate the mass transfer resistance of the membrane (Δm) and feed (Δf) phases. According to the results, the values of 1 and 1345 s/cm were found for Δm and Δf, respectively.
Highlights
Germanium is a strategic metalloid mainly used in a wide range of high-technology devices [1].Germanium is found in lead-zinc ores [1] and coal fly ashes [2]
With respect to the “solution chemistry” section, germanium was transported across flat-sheet supported liquid membrane (FSSLM) as a neutral complex using Cyanex 923
By increasing the oxalic acid concentration, the concentration of oxalate is enhanced and it promotes an increase in the H2 Ge(C2 O4 )3 concentration and the germanium transport improves
Summary
Germanium is a strategic metalloid mainly used in a wide range of high-technology devices [1]. Several processes have been developed to recover and separate germanium from impurities such as precipitation [6], flotation [7], ion-exchange [8], distillation [2], adsorption [9], liquid–liquid extraction (LLX) [10], and supported liquid membrane (SLM) [11,12,13]. An FSSLM system has been used to transport HFeCl4 species through a polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) membrane with the carrier of Cyanex 923 from a solution containing chloride ions [26]. The presented research describes a flat-sheet supported liquid membrane (FSSLM) process with a Cyanex 923 carrier, in which the facilitated transport of germanium species is carried out from a solution containing oxalic acid. A mass transfer model was developed to find ∆aq and ∆org values which are the resistances corresponding to the species diffusion through the feed–membrane interfacial layer and membrane phase, respectively
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