Separation of alkali, alkaline earth and rare earth cations by liquid membranes containing macrocyclic carriers. Third progress report, September 1, 1980-April 1, 1981

Abstract

The overall objective of this project is to study the use of liquid membrane systems employing macrocyclic ligand carriers in making separations among metal cations. During the third year of the project, work continued in the development of a mathematical model to describe cation transport. The model was originally developed to describe the relationship between cation transport rate (J/sub M/) and the cation-macrocycle stability constant (K). The model was tested by determining the rates of transport of alkali and alkaline earth cations through chloroform membranes containing carrier ligands where the stability constants for their reaction with cations in methanol were known. From the results, it is clear that the model correctly describes the dependence of J/sub M/ on log K. The model also correctly describes the effect of cation concentration and carrier concentration on cation transport rates, as detailed in the previous progress report. During the third year of the project, the transport model was expanded so as to apply to competitive transport of cations from mixtures of two cations in the source aqueous phase. Data were collected under these conditions and the ability of the model to predict the flux of each cation was tested. Representative data of thismore » type are presented along with corresponding data which were obtained when each cation was transported by the same carrier from a source phase containing only that cation. Comparison of transport rates determined under the two experimental conditions indicates that the relationship between the two sets of data is complex. To date, a few of these data involving transport from binary cation mixtures have been tested against the transport model. It was found that the model correctly predicts the cation fluxes from cation mixtures. These preliminary results indicate that the transport model can successfully predict separation factors when cation mixtures are used.« less