Construction of a novel reversible aqueous biphasic system for water purification

Abstract

Abstract A novel aqueous biphasic system (ABS) composed of acetonitrile and amine solution (MeCN\xa0+\xa0TEOA) has been constructed by CO2 (1\xa0atm) gas flush process and applied for water purification. The formation process can be approached by various ways, including gas flush, salt addition and pH regulation. The usage of low cost materials in current system provided a feasible way in terms of large scale industrial applications. In this study, the influence factors of temperature (15\xa0°C, 20\xa0°C, 30\xa0°C) and ratio distribution have been also discussed for the ABS formation, the results indicated that lower temperature is beneficial to current ABS formation. In addition, the tested system has been applied to estimation of the extraction efficiency towards the different metal ions. Nearly 100% metal ions were concentrated into bottom phase. All these attempts broaden the alternative materials of ABS construction and deepen the understanding of the mechanism of ABS formation, and demonstrated a practical model for ions extraction and water purification.