Study on the extraction of dyes into a room-temperature ionic liquid and their mechanisms

Changping Li, Baoping Xin*, Wenguo Xu, Qi Zhang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

63 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The investigation of liquid-liquid extraction of dyes is carried out by using ionic liquid - 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate ([BMIM][PF6]) - as extraction phase. The effects of its process parameters are studied in detail, such as extraction phase ratio, pH of the aqueous phase, and concentration of dicyclohexyl-18-crown-6 (DCH-18C6) in the organic phase. Important results are obtained as follows: acid dyes can be extracted with [BMIM][PF6] quantitatively; the removal of reactive dyes is low; however, it can be greatly increased by the addition of DCH-18C6. The pH value has a great impact on the removal of the acid dye and the reactive dye. However, it does not influence the extraction of the weak acid dye. It is found that the extraction process of acid dyes adopts the form of anion exchange and the soluble part of the ionic liquid plays an important role as counter-ions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)196-204
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology
Volume82
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2007

Keywords

  • Dye wastewater
  • Extraction
  • Mechanisms
  • Room-temperature ionic liquids

Cite this