Separation Methods:
The world around us consists of an innumerable complex materials- organic, inorganic and those containing both types. In order to know the impact of their existence on our life and fruitfully recover useful materials from various natural resources, we have to know their composition and develop chemistry for their recovery. We may like to look at another scenario where the human population of today has become very much demanding in terms of purity of materials, better products and security, particularly in terms of health. Simultaneously, science has tremendously grown in its dimensions and the need for ultra pure materials is fast increasing. You will, thus, realize that the entire scenario requires developments in the methods of analysis including separations. It is pertinent to point out here that separations are not only important for analysis but assume great significance in the synthesis and recovery of pure materials. Separations touch each branch of science and technology and have established within a well established branch known as separation science. If you only seen at the developments say in biological sciences such as clinical pharmacology, biotechnology, biochemistry, therapeutics and toxicology, the progress has taken place prominently because of the advancements in the separation methods.
After going through the preceding text, you would realize in which separation techniques form a significant component of chemistry and particularly analytical chemistry. This course on 'Separation Methods' is designed to include theoretical aspects, instrumentation, applications, benefits and limitations of some of the important methods of separations.
Before you study the individual separation methods, it may be necessary to get an overview of the separation science. That particular unit deals along with the concept of separations as a unified science, scope of separations highlighting their utility, categorization of separation methods and the criteria for the selection of separation methods.