Oriented Membrane Processes for Extraction of Methylene Blue and Blue P3R Dyes across Polymer Inclusion Membranes Containing Chitin As New Extractive Agent

Abstract

In the present work, according to the phase inversion technique, we have developed polymer inclusion membranes (PIMs) based on polymer supports polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), with chitin as extractive agent (EA). These PIMs have been used to study the facilitated extraction and recovery of the Methylene Blue (MB) and Blue P3R dyes from simulated aqueous textile solutions. FT-IR spectra and SEM micrographs of these membranes were recorded to explore composition, structure and morphology of the elaborated PIMs. The adoption of the kinetic and thermodynamic models based on the Fick's laws, and the saturation law of the EA by the substrate (dyes) were tested to explain the performance of each membrane and the mechanism of the studied process for the recovery of dyes from water. The overall data indicate that the used extractive agent is effective for this oriented process, and the adopted membranes can remove about 87% of dyes from wastewater, without applying any external pressure on the polluted aqueous medium.