DYNA JOURNAL ENGINEERING

Key words:

membrana liquida soportada, liquido ionico, separación selectiva, supported liquid membrane, ionic liquid, selective separation

Article type:

ARTICULO DE INVESTIGACION / RESEARCH ARTICLE

Section:

RESEARCH ARTICLES

ABSTRACT
In this review an overview is given of recent advances in supported membranes based on ionic liquids. Novel processes based on supported liquid membranes have been proposed as effective methods for the selective separation of different chemical species in a wide variety of processes. However, the industrial use of supported liquid membranes based on organic solvents is limited by their relative instability and short lifetime. The use of ionic liquids as a liquid membrane phase could overcome these inconveniences due to their negligible vapour pressure, their greater viscosity and the possibility of minimizing their solubility in the surrounding phases by adequate selection of the cation and anion. The possibility of designing suitable ionic liquids for specific separation problems has also opened up new fields of application of supported ionic liquid membranes.