The potential of the composite membranes Ch-AgNP to recover silver from X-ray film processing wastes

The potential of the composite membranes chitosan-silver nanoparticles (Ch-AgNP) to remove silver (Ag) from X-ray film processing wastes was studied using a filtration method. The study includes the pure water flux (PWF), product flux (PF), and rejection coefficient (R). Several of composite membranes such as Ch-AgNP10, Ch-AgNP100, Ch-AgNP250, Ch-AgNP500, and a pure chitosan membrane (Ch) were used in this study. The filtration was carried out using a dead-end filtration method with a pressure of 260-270 kPa. The concentration of silver waste was determined using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS). The results showed that the composite membranes have a better ability to filter silver from X-ray film processing wastes than the pure chitosan membrane. The highest rejection coefficient (R) gave by Ch-AgNP100 of around 95.55% with the pure water flux and product flux of 2051.03 and 1192.28 L/m²·h, respectively. The rejection coefficient of the composite membranes increased with increasing the mass of silver nanoparticles, while the PWF and PF were decreased. These results indicated that chitosan composite membranes are a potential method for recovering silver from X-ray film processing wastes. It's a safe and environmentally friendly method.