Improved techniques in liquid membrane separations: An overview

This paper presents a brief overview of improved Liquid membrane (LM) separ ation techniques, including modified bulk, supported and emulsion liquid me mbranes as well as hollow fibre contained liquid membranes, electrostatic p seudo liquid membranes (ESPLIM) reverse micelle and recently developed hybr id (HLM) and other LM configurations. The discussion also includes design o f ion specific carriers, analytical importance, aspects of stability and mo delling of LMs and their applications in the separation/removal of metal ca tions from a range of diverse matrices. In general, an attempt has been mad e to review the literature published from 1990 to 1997 in order to focus on the present status of different liquid membrane configurations. The LM stu dies dealing with separation and removal of organic compounds and gases are not included in this article owing to limitations of space.