Facilitated transport of uranium(VI) across supported liquid membranes (SLM) containing T2EHDGA: Part II. Nature of feed, pore size and temperature on pertraction rates

Facilitated transport of uranyl ion was investigated across PTFE supported liquid membranes using T2EHDGA in n-dodecane as the carrier extractant containing 30% iso-decanol as the phase modifier. The feed was usually 3 M HNO3 while the strip phase constituted pH 2 solution. About 11 h were required for quantitative transport of U(VI) from a feed of 3 M HNO3 using 0.2 M T2EHDGA in n-dodecane containing 30% iso-decanol as the carrier extractant. Transport studies carried out using various mineral acid as feed indicated the transport trend as HNO3 >> HCl similar to HClO4 which did not change significantly when the respective sodium salts were used in the feed. Effect of various parameters such as membrane pore size, U concentration in the feed and temperature, etc. on the transport rate was also investigated. Comparisons were made with the transport behaviour of plutonyl ion and TODGA system.