GB716875A - Improvements in apparatus for the electrophoretic or electrolytic separation of mixtures - Google Patents

Abstract

716,875. Electric separation of mixtures in a liquid. GRASSMANN, W. July 5, 1951, [July 10, 1950.] No. 15997/51. Addition to 679,278. Class 41. In a modification of the apparatus for electrolytic or electrophoretic separation of mixtures of substances as claimed in the parent Specification, the separating chamber 2 is divided from each of the electrodes 3, 4 by a diaphragm 9 defining an electrode chamber and each electrode chamber is sub-divided into two compartments by a further diaphragm II, the compartments nearer to the separating chamber 2 containing porous material 14. Buffer or electrolytic solution is supplied to the electrode chambers through inlets 12 connected to constant head devices 16 and discharged through outlet 13 connected to constant level draining appliances 19. By regulating the heights of the devices 16, 19, it is possible to produce the same difference of hydrostatic pressures between the upper and lower ends of the porous layer 14 as between the upper and lower ends of the porous material in the separating chamber 2, and also it is possible to provide a constant pressure difference which may be zero over the whole length of the diaphragms between the electrode chambers and the separating chamber 2. In this way electro-osmotic flow from one electrode to another may be balanced. The grain size of the porous material 14 is related to the grain size of the material in the separating chamber 2 so that a laminar flow of the liquid in the electrode chambers takes place at a velocity is a multiple of the velocity of the liquid in the separating chamber 2. The diaphragms. 9 may consist of material of high porosity for example filter paper, linen and large glass particles, and the diaphragms 11 may consist of material of low porosity for example burnt earth.