Patent ID: 8263343

Claim:
A method of separating at least one target from a liquid, which comprises: (a) providing at least one responsive polymer in an aqueous liquid, wherein the polymer comprises at least one hydrophobic portion; (b) contacting the aqueous liquid of (a) with the liquid comprising the target(s) to form a mixture thereof; (c) applying at least one first stimulus to the mixture resulting from (b) and maintaining it until a reversible phase separation is obtained, wherein one phase is a polymer-rich phase which comprises at least one target and the other phase is a polymer-poor phase; and (d) applying at least one second stimulus, which is different from the first stimulus, to the polymer-rich phase and maintaining it, until the polymer-rich phase has transformed into a substantially solid phase comprising ≦50% aqueous liquid, based on the total contents of polymer, target and liquid of the substantially solid phase, and (e) isolating the substantially solid phase comprising the target(s).