Proposal No: 9729849 Proposal Type: Investigator Initiated Principal Investigator: Anthony H. Skelland Affiliation: Georgia Institute of Technology
This grant is awarded through the Separations and Purification Program sub-element of the Interfacial, Transport and Separations Program of the Chemical and Transport Systems Division. The principal investigator is Dr. Anthony Skelland at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The research is directed towards the development of liquid membranes that exhibit a high level of stability without compromising permeability characteristics. The incorporation of polymeric additives to convert the membrane to non-Newtonian form is the central hypothesis of the research.
Liquid membranes have a significant potential for continuous separations relating to the selective extraction of chemical species. Unfortunately, the system is flawed by problems associated with the stability of the membrane phase. The current research directly addresses the problem of stability with retention of transport rates. The project has relevance to the extraction of toxic contaminants in wastewater and to the selective extraction of compounds of interest to the fine chemicals and pharmaceutical industries.
