bismuth ions extraction by polymer inclusion membranes and electrospun polymer fibers containing ionic liquid aliquat® 336

Polymer inclusion membranes (pims) an approximately newly developed liquid membranes, are known to be an alternative method for solvent extraction [1]. pims are thin, homogenous with naked eyes and flexible film which fabricated by using a base polymer, an extractant and sometimes, a plasticizer. electrospinning also, is innovate method to fabricate of polymer fibers (epfs) [2]. the fibers have a high porosity and a large surface area to volume ratio. pims and fibers can be used in many applications. in this work, a pvc-based pim and electrospun polymer fiber containing trioactylmethyl ammonium chloride (aliquat® 336) as extractant were prepared. pims and epfs with 70 wt% pvc and 30 wt% aliquat® 336 were selected as optimum composition. the pim and epf were characterized by contact angle, tga, sem, afm and bet analysis and employed for bi(iii) extraction. morphological and thermal analysis showed that the epfs have different physical, mechanical and surface properties compared to the pims. the presence of a porous structure in the epfs enhances surface area comparing pims and increases bismuth extraction rate [3]. the factors influencing the extraction of bismuth were investigated. the results revealed that the presence of chloride ions is required for the bismuth extraction by aliquat® 336 and highest extraction efficiency was obtained in 0.2 mol l-1 hcl and h2so4. the effect of interfering ions on the extraction was also investigated. an edta/nh3 solution was used to back-extract bismuth from pims and epfs. further research is shown that epfs are more efficient than pims in the extraction and back-extraction consecutive cycles also, the maximum capacity of epfs is much higher than the pims. this study showed that epfs have a high performance and capacity for metal ions extraction.