Selective transport of copper(II) ions across polymer inclusion membrane with aromatic β–diketones as carriers

The transport of Cu(II) ions from an equimolar mixture of Co(II), Ni(II), and Cu(II) ions as well as from solutions containing only Cu(II) ions in the feed phase through polymer inclusion membranes (PIMs) with aromatic β–diketones as carriers has been investigated. The polymer membranes consisted of polyvinylchloride (PVC) as the support, bis(2-ethylhexyl)adipate (ADO) as plasticizer, and aromatic β–diketones (benzoylacetone (1) and dibenzoylmethane (2)) as ion carriers. The transport selectivity of PIMs with 1 and 2 was: Cu(II) > Co(II) > Ni(II). The highest recovery factors of Cu(II) ions were observed for 1 (94.0%), whereas for Co(II) and Ni(II) the factors were 21.4 and 7.3%, respectively. The Cu(II)/Co(II) and Cu(II)/Ni(II) selectivity coefficients were equal to 8.9 and 33.7 (for 1), 6.4 and 28.3 (for 2), respectively