ABSTRACT

Emulsion liquid membrane (ELM) is a potential method for extracting ibuprofen (IBP) from aqueous solution. The concentrations of the carrier, surfactant and internal phases are important parameters to optimise the extraction efficiency of IBP. The Box-Behnken design (BBD) is used to optimise the main parameters of ELM, which are Aliquat 336 (A), Span 80 (B) and sodium carbonate, Na₂CO₃ (C). The responses were calculated using quadratic polynomial regression and the model suggests a significant result with the experimental data set, with the F-value and p-value calculated at 17.88% and 0.05%, respectively. Span 80 and Na₂CO₃ had a mutual interaction which was significant for the IBP extraction by ELM. At the optimised parameters, namely Aliquat 336 concentration (2 wt%), Span 80 concentration (4 wt%) and Na₂CO₃ concentration (0.1 M) resulted in 96.78% of IBP extraction.

DOWNLOAD