Use of micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration at low surfactant concentrations and with anionic-nonionic surfactant mixtures

Micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration is a separation technique which can be used to remove metal ions or dissolved organics from water. Metal ions bind to the surface of negatively charged micelles of an anionic surfactant while organic solutes tend to dissolve or solubilized within the micelles. The mixture is then forced through an ultrafiltration membrane with pore sizes small enough to block passage of the micelles and associated metal ions and/or dissolved organics. Monomeric or unassociated surfactant passes through the membrane and does not contribute to the separation. This paper considers advantages of addition of small concentrations of nonionic surfactant to an anionic surfactant; the resulting anionic-nonionic mixed micelles exhibit negative deviation from ideality of mixing which leads to a smaller fraction of the surfactant being present as monomer and a subsequently larger fraction present in the micellar form. The addition of nonionic surfactant improved the separation of divalent zinc substantially at total concentrations above the critical micelle concentration (cmc) of the anionic surfactant. Both zinc and tert-butylphenol (a nonionic organic solute) show unexpected rejection at surfactant concentrations moderately below the cmc, where micelles are absent. This is considered as due to a higher surfactant concentration in the gel layer adjacent to the membrane where micelles are present. Reduction of this rejection at lower transmembrane pressure drops supports this mechanism. Some rejection of zinc was observed in the absence of surfactant but not of tert-butylphenol, indicating an additional effect of membrane charge for ionic solutes. (C) 1999 Academic Press.