Intensification of gadolinium(III) separation by effective utilization of nanoliquids in supported liquid membrane using Aliquat 336 as carrier

A supported nanoliquid membrane was developed to improve the separation of rare metal ion gadolinium (Gd) from nitrate solution medium. The nanoliquid membrane was prepared by dispersion of nanoparticles in organic phase and Aliquat 336 was applied as the carrier. TiO₂ and SiO₂ as hydrophobic and hydrophilic nanoparticles were effectively incorporated in the supported liquid membrane (SLM) system and the effect of size, concentration, and type of nanoparticle in the SLM were evaluated. A membrane phase of 0.015 M Aliquat-336 in kerosene and 0.04 wt% of SiO₂ with the size of 15 nm was found to have the highest permeability coefficient of 12.57?×?10^?5 m/s and enhanced the permeability coefficient by 28.2%. Hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity of the nanoparticles were observed to have remarkable effects on the permeation of the SLM system and concluded that the hydrophobic nanoparticle was more desirable. Results showed that the solid supported pore’s blockage and aggregation of nanoparticles could bring adverse effects at a high nanoparticle concentration at this SLM configuration. The stability tests were conducted over ten cycles of separation and the supported nanoliquid membrane had slight reduction of permeation during the test.