Research data (the surfactant role)

Emulsion Liquid Membranes (ELMs) are known as a useful and versatile technique with widespread uses, including wastewater treatment, metal ions and organic substances recovery. In wastewater treatment applications, many researchers have removed pharmaceutical derivatives. The main objective of this last type of work focuses on the efficiency of the pharmaceutical derivatives recovery process. At the same time, some properties such as the interaction of pharmaceutical derivatives and extractants are studied. Nevertheless, there are not many reports that describe the main role of surfactants in mass transfer mechanisms. In the present research work a methodology to recover naproxen from aqueous solutions using ELMs was developed, in order to propose a way by which surfactant molecules interact with all the chemical species of both the drug and extractant in the media, and how these chemical interactions affect or benefit the extraction and stripping processes. The results obtained show how the extraction and stripping percentages are modified in presence or absent of surfactant.