Recent trends in extraction and transport of metal ions using polymer inclusion membranes (PIMs)

Abstract

The interest around polymer inclusion membranes (PIMs) has grown considerably in the past 6 years and, as a result, the number of research papers has risen exponentially. PIMs have been demonstrated to be useful for the selective extraction and recovery of numerous cations and anions and mimic the extraction properties of traditional solvent extraction and ion-exchange processes but have the advantage that extraction and back-extraction can be achieved in a single step. This review provides an overview of PIMs studies reported since 2005 and discusses extraction and transport studies according to the various base polymers, carriers, plasticizers and modifiers that have been used. Also discus..