The instability behavior of several supported liquid membranes (SLMs) has been studied for a system in which nitrate ions are removed from an aqueous feed phase and concentrated in a stripping phase. The composition of the aqueous phases and of the membrane liquid has been determined after the aqueous phases had flowed parallel to the membranes for a period of six days. From the experimental data it can be concluded that SLM-failure results from the removal of LM-phase from the support. Contrary to literature data this is not caused by an osmotic pressure difference. It is shown that the membrane stability depends largely on the type of solvent and the molecular structure of the carrier. Furthermore the membrane stability increases with an increasing salt content in the stripping phase (at constant composition of the feed solution)
