Influence of Alkyl Chain Length in 1-Alkylimidazol on the Citric Acid Transport Rate across Polymer Inclusion Membrane

Abstract

Research, about citric acid transport, through the polymer inclusion membranes, have been carried out. Two different plasticizers – ONPOE and TBP and a series of carriers of tri-octylamine and 1-alkylimidazoles with carbons chain length of 10, 11, 12, 14, and 16 atoms were used. It was found out that for 1-alkylimidazoles values of the permeability coefficients obtained for TBP as plasticizer change in the range of 8.81*10⁻⁷ m/s to 1.92*10⁻⁶ m/s. When ONPOE was used as the plasticizer, the values change in the range of 1.43*10⁻⁹ m/s to 2.24*10⁻⁸ m/s. The value of the permeability coefficient for the membrane with TBP equals 3.49*10⁻⁷ m/s and is comparable with the value obtained for the TOA with this plasticizer, which equals 4.77*10⁻⁷ m/s TBP, therefore, it is able to simultaneously act as a plasticizer and carrier in membrane. Tested membranes are characterized by a high durability. The repeated 5-times, 24-hours cycles of research did not show any decrease in transport capacity of citric acid.

Keywords:

• 1-alkylimidazole
• citric acid
• orto-nitrophenyl octyl ether
• polymer inclusion membrane
• tri-butyl phosphate
• tri-octylamine

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work was carried out in part by the framework of Statutory Research 32-126/2011-DS5 conducted at the Poznan University of Technology.