Applications:

There are numerous applications of these membranes. A few of these are listed below;

• Ultrafiltration,
• Reverse osmosis,
• Dialysis, and
• Electrodialysis.

Gel filtration has taken the form of a regular chromatography. This is also known as gel permeation or size exclusion chromatography. A column packing materials are polymer beads and silica based particles containing a network of uniform pores into which the solute and solvent molecules can diffuse. In a column operation, the solute molecules which are small enough to enter the pores of gel are retarded. While the molecules large enough not to enter the pores and will spend all their time within the mobile phase and move rapidly through the column. This is a useful technique for the separation of high molecular weight natural products from low molecular weight species and salts. It is also used for the rapid determination of molecular weight. The separation by gel permeation can be carried out at high pressure with an HPLC instrument.