Separation of copper, zinc, cobalt and nickel ions by supported liquid membrane technique using LIX 84I, TOPS-99 and Cyanex 272

Separation of copper, zinc, cobalt and nickel ions from synthetic leach liquor using supported liquid membrane was studied. LIX 84I, TOPS-99 and Cyanex 272 were used as the mobile carrier for the supported liquid membrane. From the synthetic leach liquor containing 8.97 mole/m(3) copper, 40.83 mole/m(3) zinc, 27.49 mole/m(3) cobalt, 420.51 mole/m(3) nickel and 75.677 mole/m(3) ammonium sulphate, copper was first separated using LIX 841 followed by zinc using TOPS-99 and cobalt using Cyanex 272. The solution was made copper free using 10% LIX 841 in the membrane phase and 900 mole/m(3) H2SO4 in the strip solution at pH 4.5. After copper was separated, the leach liquor was made zinc free at pH 3.65 using 0.15 M TOPS-99 in the membrane phase and 900 mole/m(3) H2SO4 in the strip solution followed by separation of cobalt using Cyanex 272. It was observed that co-permeations of zinc, cobalt and nickel with copper using LIX 841 were 0.076, 0.085 and 0.10 mole/m(3), respectively. Co-permeations of cobalt and nickel with zinc using TOPS-99 were 0.187 and 0.323 mole/m(3) and co-permeation of nickel with cobalt using Cyanex 272 was 3.407 mole/m(3), respectively. Separation factors for metal ions with different extractants were calculated and reported. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.