Selective transport of cationic substrates by membrane carriers is of great importance in chemistry, biology, and separation sciences. Compared with conventional separation processes, such as liquid-liquid extraction, membrane techniques are characterized by the technical simplicity and high efficiency in separating or enriching material from gaseous or liquid mixtures. Membrane techniques have been widely used for carrier facilitated metal ion separations [1- 3]. Selective transport of silver(I) cation across a bulk liquid membrane(BLM) containing phenylaza-15-Crown-5 as carrier has been studied. The fundamental parameters influencing the transport of silver(I) ions such as the pH in the source and receiving phases, concentration of ion carrier in the organic phase, concentration of silver(I) cation in the source phase, volume of the receiving phase, type and concentration of surfactant in the receiving phase, and concentration of the stripping agent in the receiving phase have been optimized and accordingly, the amount of silver(I) transported across the liquid membrane after 4 h was 96.3±2% in the presence of P2O7 2- as a suitable stripping agent. Moreover, the selectivity and efficiency of silver(I) ions transport from aqueous solution over other cations in ternary and quaternary mixtures have been investigated. The results indicate that our fabricated membrane is very sensitive toward Ag+ ions in the presence of heavy metal ions.

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