Diclofenac transport through stagnant sandwich and supported liquid membrane systems

The removal of a drug, diclofenac (DCF), from aqueous media by using a supported liquid membrane (SLM)and a stagnant sandwich LM (SSwLM) has been investigated. The two systems were compared in terms offlux and stability. Optimal chemical conditions were determined by means of liquid-liquid extraction tests.In the transport tests, the obtained results indicated a higher initial flux J0 (2.4 vs 1.3 mmol/hâm2) and a fastertransport (counter transport reached at 1.75 vs 26.3 h) for the SLM system than for the SSwLM system. Thediclofenac transport in the SLM from the feed to the strip was quite complete after 3 h, whereas in theSSwLM, only 39% of the initial drug was recovered in the strip phase after 30 h. Higher system stability wasobtained using the SSwLM system (>120 vs 47.5 h). The overall results obtained in this work showed thatliquid membrane systems can effectively be used to remove pharmaceuticals present at low concentration inwastewaters.