Emulsion Liquid Membrane Extraction of Silver from Photographic Waste Using Tetramethylthiuram Disulfide (TMTDS) as a Mobile Carrier

The recovery of precious metals such as silver from photographic wastes is required in order to save raw materials and to protect the environment from dispersed compound, especially heavy metals. For that matter, several technologies have been used such as precipitation, electrolytic, and ion exchange processes which offer some advantages as well as drawbacks over others. Recently, emulsion liquid membrane extraction has been recognized to be a potential process for industrial wastes treatment and recovery of heavy metals. This process has the ability to selectively separate and rapidly concentrate metals through its very thin layer liquid membrane which has a large interfacial area. An attempt was made to recover silver from liquid photographic wastes using tetramethylthiuram disulfide as a mobile carrier. The important variables affecting the emulsion liquid membrane (ELM) process including residence time, surfactant concentration, carrier concentration, level of agitation and phase ratio between emulsion and feed phase were investigated. The results showed that tetramethylthiuram disulfide is selective towards silver ( 80%) compared to other metals in the photographic waste. The highest silver extraction is obtained using 0.05 M tetramethylthiuram disulfide, 3% (w/v) Span 80, 300 rpm stirring speed, 1.0 M thiourea in 0.1 M HCl stripping agent, 1:3 of treat ratio, and toluene as the diluent.