Systematic Transport Investigation on Alkali and Alkaline Earth Metal Ions using Selected Linear Oxo-Crown Ethers across Organic Liquid Membrane

Metal ion transport through organic liquid membrane, polymer inclusion membrane and PVC membrane is parallel to metal ion transport behavior in biological systems1-11, 21. Therefore these are model membrane systems which may offer some understanding of actual biological systems. With these intentions systematic membrane studies using selected synthetic carrier is carried out. Two series of ligands were used in the present investigation. Metal ion transport of alkali and alkaline earth metal ions using these carriers and chloroform liquid membrane is thoroughly investigated. Several features of this dynamic process are observed. Synthetic macrocyclic compounds possessing limited number of donor atoms can successfully bring about transport process for fairly large number of instances. The phenyl incorporated mediators show less degree of transport efficiency than the corresponding non phenylated ones. Results are reported in terms of JM value which is actually the flux of flow of cation across the membrane. It has been indicated that JM value is directly proportional to the square of metal salt concentration in aqueous phase.