Removal of anionic dye from aqueous solution using a cationic carrier

Background: The transport of Cibacron Red FN-R (Sigma-Aldrich, MO, USA) anionic dye through a methylene chloride (Merck, India) bulk liquid membrane containing a tetrabutylammonium bromide (TBAB; Merck, India) as an excellent carrier was studied. The extracted dye simultaneously stripped into aqueous stripping solution. Results: The basic fundamental parameters were determined. These include pH of the feed, nitric acid concentration in the strip solution, TBAB concentration in the membrane phase, initial dye concentration in the feed phase and rate of stirring. The transport efficiency of the dye increased with increasing carrier concentration from 6.06 ± 0.1 × 10^−6 to 3.85 ± 0.1 × 10^−4 M. The transport study was highly selective for anionic dye, and the efficiency of transport was not affected by the presence of electrolytes such as sodium chloride and sodium sulphates in feed solution. Conclusions: The percentage of dye transported across the liquid membrane after 70 min was 95 ± 0.1%. When the optimum parameters were used for real textile dyeing effluent for recovery of dyes, the results were found to be satisfactory.