Dye removal from water using emulsion liquid membrane: Effect of alkane solvents on efficiency

Effect of different alkane based solvents on the stability of emulsion liquid membrane was investigated using normal alkanes (n-hexane, n-heptane, n-octane and n-decane) under various operating parameters of surfactant concentration, emulsification time, internal phase concentration, volume ratio of internal phase to organic phase, volume ratio of emulsion phase to external phase and stirring speed. Results of stability revealed that emulsion liquid membrane containing n-octane as solvent and span-80 (5 % (w/w)) as emulsifying agent presented the highest amount of emulsion stability (the lowest breakage) compared with other solvents; however, operating parameters (surfactant concentration (5% (w/w)), emulsification time (6 min), internal phase concentration (0.05 M), volume ratio of internal phase to organic phase (1/1), volume ratio of emulsion phase to external phase (1/5) and stirring speed (300 rpm)) were also influential on improving the stability (about 0.2% breakage) and on achieving the most stable emulsion. The membrane with the highest stability was employed to extract acridine orange with various concentrations (10, 20 and 40 ppm) from water. The emulsion liquid membrane prepared with n-octane as the best solvent almost removed 99.5% of acridine orange from water. Also, the prepared liquid membrane eliminated completely (100%) other cationic dyes (methylene blue, methyl violet and crystal violet) from water demonstrating the efficacy of prepared emulsion liquid membrane in treatment of dye polluted waters.