Electronic simulation of the supported liquid membrane in electromembrane extraction systems: Improvement of the extraction by precise periodical reversing of the field polarity

In order to understand the limitations of electromebrane extraction procedure better, a simple equivalent circuit has been proposed for a supported liquid membrane consisting of a resistor and a low leakage capacitor in series. To verify the equivalent circuit, it was subjected to a simulated periodical polarity changing potential and the resulting time variation of the current was compared with that of a real electromembrane extraction system. The results showed a good agreement between the simulated current patterns and those of the real ones. In order to investigate the impact of various limiting factors, the corresponding values of the equivalent circuit were estimated for a real electromembrane extraction system and were attributed to the physical parameters of the extraction system. A dual charge transfer mechanism was proposed for electromembrane extraction by combining general migration equation and fundamental aspects derived from the simulation. Dual mechanism comprises a current dependent contribution of analyte in total current and could support the possibility of an improvement in performance of an electromembrane extraction by application of an asymmetric polarity changing potential. The optimization of frequency and duty cycle of the asymmetric polarity exchanging potential resulted in a higher recovery (2.17 times greater) in comparison with the conventional electromebrane extraction. The simulation also provided more quantitative approaches toward the investigation of the mechanism of extraction and contribution of different limiting factors in electromembrane extraction. Results showed that the buildup of the double layer is the main limiting factor and the Joule heating has lesser impact on the performance of an electromebrane extraction system.