Concentration Of Solutes: Options For The Removal Of Solvents From Samples

Solvent removal from solutions is commonly performed in laboratory and production processes. There are a number of different methods that can be used for solvent removal, including evaporation, vacuum concentration, lyophilization, reverse extraction, solute precipitation, and dialysis (solvent exchange). The objective of solvent removal may be to preserve solutes, as is routinely performed on protein solutions, to concentrate solutes for analysis, or as a step in the synthesis or modification of solutes.

Following is a brief discussion of the options for removing solvents. Not included in this overview are chromatographic methods for concentrating solutes.