Liquid membranes for gas/vapor separations

A review on developments of liquid membranes (LMs) in the field of gas and vapor separation of the last 16 years is presented. Liquid membrane configurations employing supports, i.e. immobilized, supported and contained liquid membranes are focussed and detailed information on the respective materials, i.e. supports (supplier, type, thickness, pore width, porosity, tortuosity), liquids and carriers, are presented together with their specific separation tasks. Performance of different LMs in terms of permeability and selectivity as well as stability (duration of testing, applied differential pressures) are compared and discussed. Finally, different preparation methods of LMs are illustrated.