Separation and enrichment of norfloxacin in water by ionic liquid solvent sublation

Solvent sublation, originally introduced by Sebba, has shown promising features for removing hydrophobic compounds and ions from aqueous systems. The ionic liquid is an environment-friendly green solvents. The ionic liquid... [ view full abstract ]

Solvent sublation, originally introduced by Sebba, has shown promising features for removing hydrophobic compounds and ions from aqueous systems. The ionic liquid is an environment-friendly green solvents. The ionic liquid solvent sublation technique combines the advantages of ionic liquid extraction and conventional solvent sublation technique; it is a new method for separation / enrichment of trace substances from water. In this study, the separation of norfloxacin in water by ionic liquid solvent sublation using the mixture of ionic liquid [Bmim]PF6 and ethyl acetate(EA) as solvent. The influence of various factors on the removal rate of norfloxacin were investigated, the optimal conditions of ionic liquid solvent sublation of norfloxacin were obtained. Experimental results showed that the optimal conditions: pH=2.0, the amount of bromocresol green was 5ml, air flow rate was 60 ml/min, solvent sublation time was 75 min., the amount of solvent was 15mL, the mass fraction of NaCl was 12%. Under the optimum conditions, the removal rate of ionic liquid solvent sublation was 89.9%. The experiments showed that ionic liquid [Bmim]PF6 solvent sublation was an effective pre-treatment method. Due to the high density and viscosity of ionic liquid, it can not be directly used as sublation solvent. When the ionic liquid used in the experiment, ethyl acetate and salt should be added which affected the use of ionic liquid in the experiments.