A liquid membrane for coper transport.

A supported liquid membrane composed of a commercial ion exchange reagent and a microporous teflon film was prepared for the purpose of selectively transporting copper ions from one aqueous solution to another. This type of membrane would have a number of interesting applications, one of which is the recycling of copper from etching baths to plating baths used in the manufacturing of printed wiring boards. Under conditions typical of such an application, the steady state flux of copper ions across the membrane was measured to be 0.17 g/min-m(2). No degradation in the flux was noted over the entire time period of the experiment (~10 days).