#ESS2210: Development of Monovalent Selective Ion Exchange Membranes for the Separation of Silver Ions from Multivalent Metal Ion Solution

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Supervisor: Önder Tekinalp

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Goals and tasks: This project is one of the tasks of PRICE (PRocess Industries in the Circular Economy) Project. The main objective of PRICE is to increase the recovery of metals and minerals from hydrometallurgical process streams. Within the scope of this project, there is close collaboration with industry partner KA Rasmussen (KAR). KAR recycles silver from collected scrap (jewelry, cutlery etc) in Hamar. However, unwanted compounds accumulate with silver during recycling process. Therefore, silver should be removed from these impurities. As those impurities are divalent cations (copper, zinc and iron) while silver is monovalent cation. Monovalent selective ion exchange membranes (MSIEMs) are of special utility for the separation of monovalent ions from multivalent ions using electrodialysis. One way of developing MSIEMs is the surface modification of commercially available IEMs via layer-by-layer (LbL) deposition of polyelectrolytes. LbL method controls membrane’s final surface properties (i.e. surface charge, toplayer tightness) to improve selectivity between monovalent and multivalent ions.

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Student Activity:

• Surface modification of commercially available IEMs via LbL method using polyelectrolytes
• at different deposition conditions,
• Characterization of deposited layers,
• Monovalent ion selectivity tests of surface modified IEMs using laboratory scale electrodialysis unit with model and real metal solutions found at the industrial sites.

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Desired skills and characteristics:

• Experience with lab work.
• Basic understanding of chemistry and transport phenomena.
• Be able to work independently.

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Important info: For questions about the summer job, contact onder.tekinalp@ntnu.no.