A polymer inclusion membrane for extracting thiocyanate from weakly alkaline solutions

Abstract

A new polymer inclusion membrane (PIM) has been developed for the extraction of thiocyanate from weakly alkaline aqueous solutions. The composition of this membrane in mass percent (m/m) is 20% (m/m) Aliquat 336 as carrier, 10% (m/m) 1-tetradecanol as modifier and 70% (m/m) PVC as the base-polymer. This composition has been arrived at after extensive screening of a large number of CTA and PVC-based membranes using various plasticizers and modifiers. This membrane is homogeneous, flexible and transparent and extracts thiocyanate from weakly alkaline solutions with considerable speed for a PIM with an initial flux value of 7.86×10-6molm-2s-1. Quantitative back extraction is achieved using 1M N..