“…In addition, the membrane also functions as a cleanup filter that obstructs the transportation of neutral and high molecular mass compounds such as humic acid and proteins. This procedure has been intensively explored and found to be applicable to various charged species (see the reviews [16][17][18][19][20] mechanical stability due the leaching of the liquid phase from the membrane [21,22], the use of polymer inclusion membranes (PIM) as an alternative for electric field driven membrane extraction has recently been investigated in our laboratory [23][24][25][26]. PIMs are homogeneous, self-supporting plasticized polymeric membranes, which for these investigations consisted of cellulose triacetate as base polymer, a plasticizer, and usually an ion carrier.…”