Separating polymer-bound products from reactants

The use of a sohd or hquid membrane to separate products and reactants is most attractive as it lends itself to continuous operations. The main problems are the efficiency of the separation, the speed of the separation, and the dma-bility of the membrane. Membrane separation was also one of the first ways linear soluble polymer-bound catalysts were separated from products. However, separation efficiencies in those first examples were not as high as present ones, as membrane technology has substantially improved over the past 35 years [135]. Thus, it is not surprising that many recent examples using membranes to recover polymer-bound catalysts and to separate them from products have been reported. This technique seems particularly apt for dendrimers because of their overall globular structure [136]. However, improved membranes can also be useful with hnear soluble polymer-bound catalysts. A recent review summarizes much of this work [137]. 

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