lixiviation

Lixiviation (or leaching) is the term for defining a process that allows removal of some components from a solid. Instead of this specific name, many scientists prefer the most generic term "extraction" (e.g. , supercritical fluid extraction or SFE, microwave-assisted extraction or MAE etc, accelerated solvent extraction or ASE), which is much less self-explanatory. The advantage of this process, whatever its name, in comparison to digestion or total dissolution is, that the leachate or "extract" contains less-potential interferents and so, the sub-sequent clean-up and separation steps can be either avoided or minimized. In general, this process can also be assisted by the same type of energy as dissolution, i.e. ultrasound, high pressure and temperature, and microwaves.