Separation Science and Technology, Vol.37, No.8, 1833-1849, 2002
Facilitated transport of copper from solutions obtained by elution of cuprocyanide complexes by means of acidic thiourea
Facilitated transport of copper from copper-thiourea solutions is not recommended because of the formamidine disulfide presence, which constitutes an obstacle for the complexation of metal ions at the feed phase/membrane interface. The transport flux of copper ion decreases when the concentration of thiourea increases. In this work, the facilitated transport of copper in acidic thiourea medium has been shown that becomes possible when the solutions are pretreated by means of elution of cuprocyanides, fixed initially to an anion-exchange resin, by using thiourea. On the other hand, the use of thiourea solutions in different acids (nitric, chlorydric, sulfuric, and phosphoric) affects the transport of copper ions. The following order of flux was obtained: NO3- > Cl- > SO42- > PO43-depending on the type of anion taking part in the complex.