Talk:Salting out

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 26 August 2020 and 18 December 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): FrancescaD2020.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 08:35, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Sentence removed

I removed the following sentence:

By the production of soap is by the "salting out" process, the soap separated from the lye.

I'm not 100% sure that this is incorrect, but if it is correct, it needs to be explained much better. The rest of the article is about proteins. ike9898 22:42, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

Salting out is a chemical separation technique not limited to proteins. It can be used with other organic water soluble molecules, so I think this article needs to be expanded. I'll look into it if I have time.193.136.128.14 22:46, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

The article needs love

This article really needs work, to the point where I don't even know where to begin. It describes salting out as being something specific to proteins, and describes proteins as being less soluble at high salt concentrations, which is only true in a rather vague sense. The process actually works (and is used) for many charged colloidal particles, from plastics to detergents; proteins is just one application. The description of how it actually works is also rather... fuzzy. A look at DLVO theory should shed some more light on how it actually works. I might give a rewrite a go at some point, but right now I don't quite have the time for it. - Alltat (talk) 14:15, 18 March 2012 (UTC)

The snag with the Principle section - and maybe this is where to start?! - is tht it describes the principle only in application (as a technique for purifying proteins). This focus affects (cramps) the article as a whole. Salting out as a principle is relevant to a lot of other things too! (such as the physiology of fishes' swim bladders!) and needs to be described in much more general terms. (But reasonably approachable terms - not as dauntingly technical as in the DLVO article, which is definitely not for tourist use!!)

As rewritten (+ loved), I think most of the article as it stands at present would appear instead as a big section, "Protein purification", in a rewritten article - which would start with a new lede, and then a "Principle" section written with a much broader view. The existing "Principle" section should probably survive, in much-reduced form (and possibly even more focused), as a subsection of that new big "Protein purification" section.

( Note tht I too am very late to this comment. A couple of contributions below are in fact earlier than mine. I've positioned mine here because it specifically addresses the "where to begin" question. ) 2A04:B2C2:1002:6100:E58A:11E:567C:E6AE (talk) 06:43, 4 February 2024 (UTC)

I know I'm 8 years late to this comment, but I agree, especially given increasing use antisolvent methods in materials science. — Preceding unsigned comment added by NiKChE (talk • contribs) 14:32, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

Yes this article needs attention, the part about soap turning back into glycerol and fatty acids in saltwater is not correct but I don't know enough to fix it morsontologica (talk) 09:09, 18 November 2021 (UTC)