Materials in Separation Science

Separation Science is a universal and ubiquitous field with endless applications in all fields of science and technology. The goal of separation may be to isolate a substance or a group of substances from a mixture, purify a mixture from undesirable components or enrich a mixture in one (or more) of its components. For this reason, a large variety of separation methods have been developed that are applicable to scales from several tones and down to a few nanograms.

The rapid growth of materials science and engineering has pushed separation science to a whole new level, improving separation processes, making them faster and more cost-effective while enabling new applications that could not be achieved with “conventional” separation techniques. The range of applications of materials in separation science and the numerous research endeavors are characteristic of the contribution of materials in separation processes.

The Section “Materials in Separation Science” aims to gather original research and review articles on the application of materials in separation science. Both new materials and novel applications of known materials are welcome.

The Section accepts articles in all fields of separation science provided that they contribute to the improvement of the current state of knowledge. This includes materials for:

• Analytical applications (chromatography, sample preparation, passive sampling, etc.);
• Environmental applications (water purification, remediation of soils and sediments, capture of toxic gases, etc.);
• Isolation of active ingredients (purification of drugs, isolation of bioactive compounds from natural products);
• Particle separations (isolation and separation of nanoparticles and micro/nanoplastics, separation of bacteria/viruses).

Studies devoted to the synthesis of new materials or theoretical investigations of material properties without demonstrating their application are not within the scope of the section.