Separation and Purication Technology 76 (2010) 814

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Separation and Purication Technology
j our nal homepage: www. el sevi er . com/ l ocat e/ seppur
Transport of salicylic acid through supported liquid membrane based on
ionic liquids
Noura kouki, Rak Tayeb, Ramzi Zarrougui, Mahmoud Dhahbi

Laboratoire Eau et Technologies Membranaires, BP 273, 8020 Soliman, Tunisia

a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 25 May 2010
Received in revised form 7 September 2010
Accepted 10 September 2010
Keywords:
Supported liquid membrane
Imidazolium-based ionic liquid
Ethylammonium nitrate
Salicylic acid
Facilitated transport
Transport mechanism
a b s t r a c t
Transport of salicylic acid (SA) through at-sheet supported liquid membrane (SLM) was investi-
gated using as liquid membrane the ionic liquids 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium hexauorophosphate
([C
6
mim][PF
6
]) or ethylammonium nitrate (EAN). Using [C
6
mim][PF
6
], it has been observed that the
transport efciency decreases with increasing pH, indicating that the un-dissociated formof SA is mainly
extracted. On the other hand, the ionic dissociated form of salicylic acid is mostly extracted via the
anion exchange mechanismbetween nitrate and salicylate anions when EANis used as liquid membrane.
Parameters such as nature and concentration of the strippant in the receiving phase and concentration
of the SA in the feed phase were studied. By comparing the SLM transport efciency of SA (initial ux) of
the two used ionic liquids, EAN appears to be slight efcient than [C
6
mim][PF
6
].
Despite the use of different stripping solutions (NaCl, NaOH and Na
2
CO
3
) and even with pH mainte-
nance around initial values, uphill transport driven by pH difference was not observed using both ionic
liquids. The absence of uphill transport has been attributed to the formation, along the course of the
experiment, of water microenvironments (aggregates) inside the ionic liquid. SA transport through these
water microenvironments inside the liquid membrane becomes the main mechanism. The main feature
of SLMs based on ionic liquids is their higher stability compared to classical SLMs. In fact, our SLMsystem
retained its stability and initial performance during the 9 days long experiment.
2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Several investigations have shown evidence that some pharma-
ceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are not completely
removed during sewage treatment [17]. Onthis basis, the demand
for the development of efcient systems for removing these sub-
stances fromwater has assumed recently a great research interest.
Since PPCPs are suspicious environmental contaminants as they are
biologically active and often have a low biodegradability [8,9].
Membrane operations are increasingly employed in many
industrial sectors as important alternative technologies to the clas-
sical processes of separation such as distillation, crystallisation,
solvent extractionandprecipitation. Among membrane-basedsep-
aration processes, the use of supported liquid membranes (SLMs)
has received growing attention during recent years [1014]. SLMs
consist of porous supports whose pores are lledwitha liquid. They
have been widely applied to extract metal ions species [10,12] and
some organic compounds [11,14] from aqueous solutions. More-
over, these systems offer numerous process advantages such as

Corresponding author. Tel.: +216 79325798; fax: +216 71430934.

E-mail addresses: mahmoud.dhahbi@certe.rnt.tn, dhahbim@yahoo.fr
(M. Dhahbi).
low capital investment and operating cost, low energy consump-
tion, low liquid membrane requirement and simple to operate and
easy to scale up [10,15]. Nevertheless, their industrial application
is still limited, mainly due to concerns about SLM stability and
long-term performance [16,17]. SLMs with conventional liquids
eventually deteriorate duo to liquid vaporisation, dissolution into
a contacting phase, and displacement from the porous structure
under low-pressure gradient (<10kPa).
Ionic liquids have recently been revealed as interesting clean
alternatives to classical solvents. They are organic salts that are liq-
uid close to roomtemperature and they normally consist of organic
cation and a polyatomic inorganic anion [18]. The use of these new
solvents as a liquid phase results in the stabilization of the SLMs
[19,20] due to their negligible vapour pressure, the possibility of
minimising their solubility in the surrounding phases by adequate
selection of the cation and anion, and the greater capillary force
associated with their high viscosity [21,22].
Salicylic acid (SA) and its derivatives are largely used to ease
aches and pains, to reduce fevers and also as constituents of some
rubefacient pharmaceuticals. This metabolite has been, already,
detected in sewage efuents, wastewaters and surface waters
[7,23]. The objective of this paper is to study the extraction
of SA from aqueous solutions through a SLM containing two
different ionic liquids. The two ionic liquids used are 1-hexyl-
1383-5866/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.seppur.2010.09.013
N. kouki et al. / Separation and Purication Technology 76 (2010) 814 9
3-methylimidazolium hexauorophosphate ([C
6
mim][PF
6
]) and
ethylammoniumnitrate(EAN). Theincidenceof several parameters
such as feed phase pH, nature and concentration of the stripping
agent in the receiving phase and concentration of the salicylic acid
in the source phase were studied.
2. Experimental
2.1. Reagents and membranes
The imidazolium-based ionic liquid used in this study, 1-hexyl-
3-methylimidazolium hexauorophosphate [C
6
mim][PF
6
], with
nominal purity of greater then 97.0 mass %, was purchased from
Fluka. Ethylammoniumnitrate EANwas synthesized in our labora-
tory according to Evans et al. by neutralization of ethylamine with
nitric acid [24].
A hydrophobic polyvinylidene uoride membrane (Durapore

GVSP, Millipore) was used as supporting membrane. The mem-

brane nominal pore size, porosity and thickness were 0.2m, 65%
and 120m, respectively.
Feedsolutions were preparedbydissolvingsalicylic acidsodium
salt (MW=160.11g/mol, purity99.5%, Fluka) in ultrapure water
(Milli Q Plus Colum, Millipore). The pHs of these solutions were
maintained at different values ranging from 1 to 6. Mixtures of
solutions of potassium chloride (Fluka) and hydrochloric acid, cit-
ric acid (Fluka) and sodium citrate (Fluka), acetic acid and sodium
acetate (Fluka) and 2-(N-morpholino)-ethane sulphonic acid (MES,
Sigma) and sodiumhydroxide (Carlo Erba) were prepared to obtain
respectivelythepHs of 1, 3, 4.7and6. Reagents of analytical gradeor
higher were used without further purication. Chemical structures
of SA, [C
6
mim][PF
6
] and EAN are given in Fig. 1.
2.2. Analytical methods
SA concentration measurements in both aqueous source and
receiving solutions were carried out using a UVvisible Perkin-
Elmer double beam spectrophotometer type Lambda 20 at a
wavelength of 305.4nm. A pH meter (C861 Consort) was used for
pH measurements.
2.3. SLM transport experiments
The at-sheet supported liquid membrane was prepared at
room temperature by impregnating the porous lm with ionic liq-
uidfor at least 24h. Then, it was wipedwithasoft paper toeliminate
the excess of ionic liquid. Obtained SLM was placed in the mid-
dle of a two-compartment permeation cell described elsewhere
[12,25]. The exposed membrane area was 3.1cm
2
. The feed and
the stripping solutions (50mL each) were placed in each compart-
ment of the cell. Both aqueous feed and stripping solutions were
magnetically stirred at 600rpm at 251

C to avoid concentration
polarization conditions at the membrane interfaces and in the bulk
of the solutions. 1mL sample of each feed and stripping solutions
was periodically taken to determine SA concentration. All experi-
ments were carried out in duplicate and standard deviations were
less than 5%.
The efciency of SLMsystemcan be evaluated using the extrac-
tion percentage E(%), the recovery percentage R(%) and the initial
ux J of SA.
The extraction percentage, E(%), was calculated by Eq. (1):
E(%) =
[SA]
feed.0
[SA]
feed,t
[SA]
feed,0
100 (1)
where [SA]
feed,0
is the initial SA concentration in the feed solution
and [SA]
feed,t
is the SA concentration in the feed solution at time t.
The recovery percentage, R(%), was calculated by Eq. (2):
R(%) =
[SA]
strip,t
[SA]
feed,0
100 (2)
where [SA]
strip,t
is the SA concentration in the stripping solution at
time t.
The initial ux, J, for the SA can be expressed as follows
[12,13,25]:
J =

V
A

d[SA]
dt

(3)
where V is the volume of the aqueous stripping solution (L), S is the
effective exposed surface area of the membrane (m
2
), and [SA]
strip
is theconcentrationof SAinthestrippingphase(mol L
1
) at elapsed
time (s).
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Effect of feed solution pH
In order to assess the role of the feed phase pH in the SA trans-
port process, feed solution was buffered at different pHs: 1, 3,
4.7 and 6. Fig. 2 shows the increase of the extraction percentage
as a function of time using [C
6
mim][PF
6
] and EAN as ionic liq-
uids. It can be observed that when using imidazolium-based ionic
liquid [C
6
mim][PF
6
], the amounts of SA extracted decrease with
increasing pH. In fact, after 8h of transport process, the extrac-
tion percentage decreases from 46.3% (pH=1) to 32.1% (pH=6). It
is trivial that the molecular (un-dissociated) formof SAis extracted
(pK
a
of SA is 2.97). However, the amount of decrease does not
necessarily correspond to fraction of un-dissociated form may be
due to the relative solubility of the SA salt into the imidazolium-
based ionic liquid phase. The same behaviour was observed in the
C H a
c
b
3
N
+
N
CH
3
P
-
F
F
F
F
F
F
N
+
H
C
H
3
H
H NO
3
-
O
H
C
O
OH
Fig. 1. Chemical structures of (a) [C6mim] [PF6], (b) EAN and (c) SA.
10 N. kouki et al. / Separation and Purication Technology 76 (2010) 814
10 8 6 4 2 0
0
20
40
60
E

%
Time (h)
a b
pH=1
pH=3
pH=4.7
pH=6
10 8 6 4 2 0
0
20
40
60
E

%
Time (h)
pH=1
pH=3
pH=4.7
pH=6
Fig. 2. Effect of feed pH on the SA extraction percentage. Feed solution: [SA] =10
3
M; polymeric support: PVDF. (a) Stripping solution: NaOH 10
2
M; organic phase:
[C6mimPF6] and (b) stripping solution: NaCl 10
2
M; organic phase: EAN.
recovery of phenol and lactic acid into some imidazolium-based
room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) [26,27].
In the case of EAN, the SA extraction percentage increases from
28.4% to 36.8% (8h of transport process) when the initial pH of the
feed phase increases from pH 1 to pH 6. Taking into consideration
that the maximum value of the extraction percentages is at pH 6,
SA exists as its anion state, suggesting that extraction proceeds by
the anion exchange mechanism between the nitrate and salicylate
anions [2830]. In fact, at the source solution-membrane interface,
salicylate (SA

) forms a neutral ion-pair complex with ethylam-

monium nitrate (RNH
3
+
, NO
3

). Due to its concentration gradient,

the ion-pair complex diffuses across the membrane porosity. At the
receiving solution-membrane interface, salicylate is released in the
presence of anaqueous NaCl (alkaline) solution. The drivingforce to
achieve uphill transport of SA is the difference in chloride concen-
tration between both aqueous solutions. A simplied mechanism
to describe the permeation of SA across an EAN-based SLM can be
summarized using the following reactions:
SA

+RNH
3
+
, NO
3

SA

, RNH
3
+
+NO
3

(4)
SA

+RNH
3
+
+Cl

SA

+RNH
3
+
+NO
3

(5)
3.2. Effect of different strippants in the stripping solution
To compare [C
6
mim][PF
6
] and EAN salicylic acid recovery ef-
ciencies, the feed solution was buffered in both cases at pH 3
throughout the investigation.
The effect of the strippant nature in the receiving phase on
the SA transport efciency was checked using several aqueous
strippants such as NaOH, NaCl and Na
2
CO
3
. The feed phase was,
in all cases, a 10
3
M SA aqueous solution buffered at pH 3.
In the case of [C
6
mim][PF
6
], the time courses of the concen-
tration changes of SA in both phases using NaOH as stripping
agent are shown in Fig. 3(a). It can be noted that up to 20h of
transport, SA concentration decreases sharply in the feed phase
and, in contrast, increases in the receiving phase. Beyond 20h of
transport, the concentration prole in both solutions reaches a
plateau. Similar time courses trends were registered using NaCl
and Na
2
CO
3
as strippants. The plateau appearance is probably
due to the disappearance of the pH difference between aqueous
phases subsequent to proton permeation, as shown in Fig. 3(b).
This pH difference disappearance has been also observed by Mat-
sumoto et al. [29] studying the SLM permeation of penicillin G
using [C
4
mim][PF
6
], [C
6
mim][PF
6
] and [C
8
mim][PF
6
] as ionic liq-
uids. Hence, pH was manually maintained during the run around
initial values by adding concentrated NaOHsolutionto the aqueous
receiving phase, and time courses, when NaCl is used as strip-
pant, are shown in Fig. 4. We can see a slight improvement on
the recovery percentage and almost 53% was transported to the
receiving phase after 27h of transport process. As seen in this g-
ure, uphill transport driven by pHdifference was not observed. The
same behaviour (absence of uphill transport) was observed when
using the other strippants as well as by Matsumoto et al. [29] when
studying the extraction of penicillin G through a SLM impregnated
with different imidazolium-based ionic liquids. Indeed, despite the
maintenance of the pH difference between the source and receiv-
ing phases, uphill transport of SA and of the antibiotic was not
observed.
100 80 60 40 20 0
0,0
0,2
0,4
0,6
0,8
1,0 Feed phase
a b
Stripping phase
[
S
A
]

(
1
0
-
3

m
o
l
.
L
-
1
)
Time (h)
100 80 60 40 20 0
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Feed phase
Stripping phase
p
H
Time (h)
Fig. 3. Time courses of SAconcentration (a) and pH(b) in feed and stripping phases. Feed solution: [SA] =10
3
Mbuffered at pH3; stripping solution: NaOH10
2
M; polymeric
support: PVDF; organic phase: [C6mim][PF6].
N. kouki et al. / Separation and Purication Technology 76 (2010) 814 11
100 80 60 40 20 0
0,0
0,2
0,4
0,6
0,8
1,0
[
S
A
]

(
1
0
-
3

m
o
l
.
L
-
1
)
Time (h)
Feed phase
Stripping phase
Fig. 4. Time courses of SA concentration in feed and stripping phases with pH con-
trol. Feed solution: [SA] =10
3
M buffered at pH 3; stripping solution: NaCl 10
2
M;
polymeric support: PVDF; organic phase: [C6mim][PF6].
Table 1
Effect of the strippant nature on the SA initial ux. Feed solution: [SA] =10
3
M
buffered at pH 3; polymeric support: PVDF; transport time: 8h.
Strippant (10
2
M) Initial ux (10
6
mol m
2
s
1
)
[C
6
mim][PF
6
] EAN
NaOH 2.1 2.7
Na
2
CO
3
1.7 3.1
NaCl 1.5 3.2
The experimental results concerning the transport of SA across
the EAN-SLM using NaCl as strippant are shown in Fig. 5(a). It is
worthy to note that after 24h of transport process, around 48% of
SAwas transportedtothereceivingphaseandafterwardaplateauis
reached. As in the case of [C
6
mim][PF
6
], the reached constant value
is may be in relation with the disappearance of the pH difference,
as shown in Fig. 5(b). Comparable time courses trends were also
obtained using NaOH and Na
2
CO
3
as strippants.
For bothusedionic liquids, theSAinitial ux, calculatedfromthe
rst 8h of transport experiment, has been estimated using NaOH,
NaCl and Na
2
CO
3
as strippants and results are reported in Table 1.
As it can be seen, comparable initial uxes were obtained. Even
though, NaOH and NaCl seem to be the most efcient strippants in
the case of [C
6
mim][PF
6
] and EAN, respectively.
Despite the lower extraction efciencies using [C
6
mim][PF
6
] or
EAN (around 50%), the elaborated SLM system can be promisingly
applied using more efcient ionic liquids. Actually, this system
recommends low capital investment and operating cost and low
energy consumption compared to other membrane processes.
Kumar et al. [31] reported a SA recovery with current efciency
close to 90% but the energy consumption was around 10kWh/kg
of the SA produced. On the other hand, Payan et al. [32] suggested
the application of hollowber-based liquid-phase microextraction
(HF-LPME) using a polypropylene membrane supporting dihexyl
ether for the determination of acidic pharmaceuticals (ibuprofen,
diclofenac and salicylic acid) in wastewaters. These authors men-
tionedthat the extractioneffectiveness for the analyzedsubstances
is unrelated to the type of wastewater, remaining practically con-
stants (about 100% SA, 71% diclofenac and 52% ibuprofen). In spite
of this SA higher extraction efciency, no data about the dihexyl
ether-SLM system stability have been provided.
3.3. Effect of strippant concentration
The effect of NaOH and NaCl concentrations in the receiving
phase on the SA recovery percentage using [C
6
mim][PF
6
] and EAN
are showninFig. 6(a) and (b), respectively. As observed inthese g-
ures, therecoveryefciencyappears tobemoreor less independent
of the strippant concentration. A concentration of 10
2
M of strip-
pant can be considered as adequate to allowthe dissociation of the
complex formed between SAand the ionic liquid at the membrane-
receiving phase interface and thus the release of SAin the receiving
aqueous phase. Similar phenomena were observed in the recovery
of phenol from aqueous solution by a SLM system using vegetable
oils as liquid membrane and NaOH as stripping agent [33] and the
facilitated transport of citric acid using tri-n-octylamine as carrier
and Na
2
CO
3
and NaHCO
3
as strip pants [34].
3.4. Effect of salicylic acid concentration
The inuence of the initial SA source concentration on the SLM
extraction efciency was also investigated. This study was carried
out using source solutions containing different SA concentrations
ranging from 10
3
to 10
1
M, and results are shown in Fig. 7
as the SA initial ux against the SA concentration in the source
solution. This shows that under the experimental conditions and
for both used ionic liquids the ux is inuenced by the initial SA
concentration, being enhanced when the SA concentration in the
feed solution increases. Moreover, in the studied concentration
range, we did not observe the typical plateau of the ux. Simi-
lar observations were reported in SLM studies of urea transport by
macro-cyclic carriers [35], for phenol transport [36] and facilitated
transport of lactic acid and its ethyl ester [37]. An increase in ux
100 80 60 40 20 0
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Feed phase
Stripping phase
p
H
Time (h)
100 80 60 40 20 0
0,0
0,2
0,4
0,6
0,8
1,0
Feed phase
Stripping phase
[
S
A
]

(
1
0
-
3

m
o
l
.
L
-
1
)
Time (h)
a b
Fig. 5. Time courses of SA concentration (a) and pH(b) in feed and stripping phases. Feed solution: [SA] =10
3
Mbuffered at pH3; stripping solution: NaCl 10
2
M; polymeric
support: PVDF; organic phase: EAN.
12 N. kouki et al. / Separation and Purication Technology 76 (2010) 814
0,5 0,4 0,3 0,2 0,1 0,0
0
20
40
60
R
%
[NaOH](mol.L
a b
-1
)
1,0 0,8 0,6 0,4 0,2 0,0
0
20
40
60
R
%
[NaCl](mol.L
-1
)
Fig. 6. Effect of the strippant concentration on the SA recovery percentage. Feed solution: [SA] =10
3
M buffered at pH 3; polymeric support: PVDF; transport time: 24h. (a)
[C6mim][PF6] and (b) EAN.
at low feed concentrations is expected, followed by an approach
to a plateau value at high feed concentration when the carrier is
fully loaded [35]. As the ux increases almost linearly through-
out the studied concentration range in this particular investigation,
the liquid membranes have probably not reached saturation. This
phenomenon can be attributed to the permeation process being
controlled by diffusion of solute species in the range of concentra-
tion studied [38].
It can be also noticed that throughout the studied concentra-
tion range, NEA seems to be slight efcient than [C
6
mim][PF
6
] for
the transport of SA (initial ux) across a SLM based on these ionic
liquids.
3.5. Transport mechanism
Despite the slight improvement onthe recovery efciency when
pH is manually maintained during the run around initial values,
uphill transport driven by pH difference was not observed using
[C
6
mim][PF
6
] or NEA as membrane liquid. The absence of uphill
transport can be attributed to the formation, in the ionic liq-
uid membrane phase, of water microenvironments as reversed
micelles. Accordingly, solute (salicylic acid) transport through
these microenvironments becomes the dominant mechanism as
pointed out by Fortunato et al. [39]. The back transport of water
through a SLM containing an imidazolium or a phosphonium-
based ionic liquids was identied experimentally by some authors
[40,41]. Martak et al. [41] suggest that the transport of lactic acid
is closely related to the back transport of water in the reverse
micelles which are formed on the stripping interface. It is impor-
tant to mention that Cammarata et al. [42] reported the presence
of water aggregates (clusters), using IR spectroscopy, in the ionic
liquid [C
4
mim][PF
6
], when this RTIL is saturated with water. The
formation of reverse micelles or water aggregates in some ionic
liquids was also observed experimentally in molecular simulation
studies [43,44].
Thus, it is possible to conclude that, before the formation of
water microenvironments, transport is mainly regulated by ionic
liquid selectivity towards salicylic acid. However, along the course
of the experiment, a complete loss of selectivity is observed and
SA transport through water microenvironments inside the ionic
liquid becomes the main mechanism [39]. The formation of water
microenvironments, inside the ionic liquid, is shown to be respon-
sible for the deterioration of the liquid membranes performance,
due not to a displacement of ionic liquid fromthe porous structure
of the membrane, but to a marked loss of selectivity. A verication
and deeper understanding of this mechanism will require future
works devoted to the study of the present system by advanced
physicochemical methods and by molecular modeling.
3.6. SLM stability
To study the long-term membrane stability, the SA trans-
port efciency for a period of 9 days on continuous run mode
under the optimum conditions without re-impregnation of the
0,10 0,08 0,06 0,04 0,02 0,00
0
5
10
15
20
25
F
l
u
x

(
1
0
-
5

m
o
l
.
m
-
2
.
s
-
1
)
[SA](mol.L
-1
) [SA](mol.L
-1
)
0,10 0,08 0,06 0,04 0,02 0,00
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
F
l
u
x

(
1
0
-
5

m
o
l
.
m
-
2
.
s
-
1
)
a b
Fig. 7. Effect of the SA concentration on the initial ux. Feed solution: SA solution buffered at pH 3; polymeric support: PVDF; transport time: 8h. (a) Stripping solution:
NaOH 10
2
M; organic phase: [C6mimPF6] and (b) stripping solution: NaCl 10
2
M; organic phase: EAN.
N. kouki et al. / Separation and Purication Technology 76 (2010) 814 13
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
0
20
40
60
R
%
Day
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
0
20
40
60
R
%
a
b
Fig. 8. Stability behaviour of the SLM system: SA recovery percentage as a function
of time. Feed solution: [SA] =10
3
M buffered at pH 3; polymeric support: PVDF.
(a) Stripping solution: NaOH 10
2
M; organic phase: [C6mimPF6] and (b) stripping
solution: NaCl 10
2
M; organic phase: EAN.
membrane was examined. The SA recovery percentage was mea-
sured throughout 24h, and after this period of time, depleted
source and enriched strip solutions were replaced with fresh ones.
From the data reported in Fig. 8, it can be observed that both
ionic liquids ([C
6
mim][PF
6
] and NEA) show only marginal differ-
ences and do not exhibit a time dependent negative tendency.
It can be concluded that after 9 days the membrane retained
its initial performance. This suggests a good expectancy for the
lifetime of SLM with C
6
mim][PF
6
] or NEA, which is usually a crit-
ical weakness of classical SLMs [16,17]. Likewise, Martak et al.
[41] observed that the SLM with tetradecyl(trihexyl)phosphonium
bis(2,4,4-trimethylpentyl)phosphinate (IL-104) retained its initial
performance for lactic acid transport until 5.3 days.
4. Conclusion
Supported liquid membranes based on the ionic liquids 1-
hexyl-3-methylimidazolium hexauorophosphate ([C
6
mim][PF
6
])
and ethylammonium nitrate (NEA) effectively transport salicylic
acid from aqueous solutions. If the un-dissociated form of SA is
mainly extracted in case of the imidazolium-based ionic liquid,
an anion exchange mechanism is mentioned in the case of NEA.
Under optimum operating conditions, an extraction efciency of
48%and 48.7%, a recovery efciency of 47.2%and 48.5%and a ux of
2.110
6
and 3.210
6
mol m
2
s
1
using [C
6
mim][PF
6
] and NEA
are achieved, respectively. The back transport of water in the trans-
port of SA through SLM with both ionic liquids was proposed as
responsible for the absence of uphill transport and hence, the dete-
rioration of the liquid membranes performance. A stable recovery
efciency of SA through SLM based on studied ionic liquids was
found during the 9 days long experiment, which is promising.
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