REMOVAL OF NICKEL IONS FROM SYNTHETIC WASTEWATER BY ELECTRODIALYSIS USING POLYMER MEMBRANES DOPED WITH PLANT EXTRACT

References: 17th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM 2017, www.sgem.org, SGEM2017 Conference Proceedings, ISBN 978-619-7408-09-6 / ISSN 1314-2704, 29 June - 5 July, 2017, Vol. 17, Issue 52, 755-762 pp, DOI: 10.5593/sgem2017/52/S20.097

ABSTRACT

This paper reports the efficiency of polymer membranes without and with small amount of commercial plant extract involved in removal of nickel ions from synthetically wastewater using a mini-electrodialysis cell. The membranes were obtained by phase inversion technique at room temperature. The structure of the resulting membranes was investigated through Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR-ATR) spectroscopy and Environmental Scanning Electron (ESEM) microscopy. FTIR spectra show that the peak at 2325 cm−1 shifted to a higher wavenumber when commercial plant extract is added in the polymer matrix. This is probably due to the N-H and O-H stretching vibration and indicated that the plant extract was successfully incorporated into the bulk membrane. ESEM images of the prepared membrane samples showed that the introduction of plant extract into the mesoporous channels reduces the pore size of the membrane. The membrane doped with commercial plant extract showed an extraction percentage of 52% after 1 h of electrodialysis experiment.

Keywords: commercial plant extract, membranes, electrodialysis, nickel ions