Purely separation of mixture of mercury and arsenic via hollow fiber supported liquid membrane

Abstract

The separation of mercury(II) and arsenic(III) ions from chloride media has been examined through a hollow fiber supported liquid membrane using tri-n-octylamine (TOA) as an extractant dissolved in toluene. The transport system was studied as a function of several variables: the concentration of the hydrochloric acid feed solutions, the concentration of TOA in the liquid membrane, the concentration of sodium hydroxide in the recovery solutions. According to the system, mercury(II) ions were extracted using TOA by rejecting arsenic (III) ions into raffinate because of the different forms of the mercury(II) and arsenic(III) ions in hydrochloric acid solutions. The maximum percentage of recovery for mercury(II) was 95 %; 100 % selectivity was obtained.