Micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration (MEUF), being a separation technique, was used to remove cobalt metal ion (Co2+) from their aqueous solutions in an application to reduce the toxicity level from industrial effluents using a micellar solution of anionic and cationic surfactants. The metal ions were first adsorbed by using anionic surfactants, i.e., sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and sodium oleate (SO). The calculations for partition (Kx) and binding constants (Kb) and their respective free energy of partition and binding (ΔGp and ΔGb kJmol-1) helped significantly to find out the extent of binding or interaction of Co2+ with the surfactant and ΔGp and ΔGb were found to be -29.50 and -19.38 kJmol-1 for SDS and -23.95 and -12.67 kJmol-1 in the case of SO. MEUF work was also performed to find out the optimal conditions to remove metal pollutants from the aqueous system. For the said purpose, various factors and concentrations effect were studied, such as the concentration of the surfactant, concentration of the electrolyte (NaCl), transmembrane pressure, RPM, and pH. The efficiency of this process was checked by calculating various parameters, such as rejection percentage (R%) and permeate flux (J). A maximum rejection of 99.95% with SDS and 99.99% with SO was attained.
Keywords: MEUF; RPM; adsorption; binding constant; concentration of surfactant; electrolyte; metal ions; micelles; pH; partition coefficient; permeate flux; rejection percentage; transmembrane pressure.