Optimisation of Ibuprofen Extraction by Emulsion Liquid Membrane Using Box-Behnken Design

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.