Removal and recovery of p-nitrophenol from aqueous solution using natural solid triglycerides

Abstract

An attempt has been made in this study to remove p-nitrophenol (PNP) from an aqueous feed solution and to recover it into strip solution through a solid membrane coated with solid triglycerides. The influence of various parameters such as pH of the feed (source) phase, the effect of sodium hydroxide concentration in the strip (receiving) phase, stirring speed, initial concentration of PNP and different solid membranes (SMs) were investigated. Studies on the transport kinetics of PNP and the stability of the membranes were also carried out. A variety of solid triglycerides such as ghee, vanaspathi and commercially available beeswax were coated on various support materials namely cotton cloth, netlon and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane and examined for the transport of PNP. Among the various combination of support materials and solid triglycerides tested, ghee coated on PTFE support was found to perform better with permeability of 1.46 × 10 −6 m/s. Thus the use of cheap, non toxic, naturally occurring solid triglycerides as a novel, green membrane for the recovery of PNP from aqueous solution has been demonstrated.