What are the expectations of liquid membranes in ion separations

The transport of radionuclides and metals in environment and living organisms is to a great extent controlled by multi-compartment, multi-stage liquid film diffusion and biological membrane transfer, often resulting in very selective and segregative process. The separative catalytic power of liquid membranes, and biomimetic membranes in particular is not always unambiguous at present state of art, but still promising. The scope of SIS '91 Conference was in the looking for interdisciplinary approach in that field of separation of ionic solutes. (author) 25 refs.; 1 fig