3D printed liquid membrane transport system.

In chemical separation applications, the use of membrane technologies is becoming recognised as a more environmentally friendly and cost-effective alternative to traditional systems, such as solvent extraction systems, for separating and concentrating chemicals from complex mixtures. The development of such technologies requires the use of suitable cell compartments to physically secure the membrane between the feed and receiving solutions and provide a controllable chemical environment to measure parameters such as ion flux across the membrane (a process known as 'transport') and selectivity for the target chemical species. However, such transport cells currently consist of expensive and often irreplaceable custom-blown glassware, in addition to custom mechanical stirring equipment due to its chemical resistance to the highly corrosive or caustic conditions of the solutions these membranes are often exposed to. The main challenges present are the design and acquisition of both this glassware and suitable mechanical stirring equipment, which impedes access to investigators studying membrane technologies who do not have access to well-funded laboratories. As an affordable and accessible solution, we have developed a 3D printed membrane transport system, analogous to traditional glassware counterparts, which incorporates polylactic acid (PLA) transport cells with a chemically resistant coating. This system is compact, simple, and yields highly reproducible results allowing for smoother workflows and better quality of data.