Study of Bulk Membrane Transport of Some Heavy Metal Cations Using Three Macrocyclic Ligands Containing Oxygen and Nitrogen Heteroatoms

The transport experiments of Co²⁺, Ni²⁺, Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺, Cd²⁺, Ag⁺ and Pb²⁺ metal cations were carried out by dibenzo-18-crown-6 (DB18C6), dibenzyl-diaza-18-crown-6 (Dibenzyl-diaza-18C6) and di-tert-butyl-dibenzo-18-crown-6 (Di-tert-butyl-DB18C6) using chloroform (CHCl₃), 1,2-dichloroethane (1,2-DCE) and nitrobenzene (NB) organic solvents as liquid membranes. The source phase contained equimolar concentration of these metal cations and the source and receiving phases being buffered at pH=5 and pH=3, respectively. The obtained results show that the selectivity and the efficiency of transport for these heavy metal cations change with the nature of the ligand and also the organic solvents, which were used as liquid membranes in these experiments. A good selectivity was observed for silver (I) ion by dibenzyl-diaza-18C6 in all membrane systems. Dibenzo-18C6 and di-tert-butyl-DB18C6 showed the highest transport efficiency for cobalt (II) ion. The effect of stearic acid on transport efficiency was also investigated and the results show that the efficiency of transport of the heavy metal cations increases in the presence of this organic acid.