All About Leaching: Definition

Even if you don't know the definition for the chemical process of leaching, you've probably witnessed
it take place. If you've ever brewed a cup of tea or made instant coffee, for instance, you've seen
leaching in action.Leaching is just the process of extracting a substance from a solid material that
has come into contact with a liquid.
In leaching, the liquid is very important as it facilitates the ability to remove (or extract) a given
substance from a solid matrix (i.e. material). Let's break this definition down by using the example of
brewing tea.
You go into your kitchen and decide you would like to make a hot cup of green tea. Of course you
know that a green tea bag, hot water, and a cup is needed to make the tea. Shown in diagram 1, we
can relate each of these components to the definition of leaching: (1) The tea bag would be our solid
matrix, (2) the green tea would be the substance extracted, and (3) the hot water would be our liquid
source.

Diagram 1: Example of Making Green Tea To Illustrate

Leaching

Going back to our story on making tea, you proceed with boiling water and add it to a cup. As you
steep your green tea bag in the hot water, what do you notice? The water not only changes colors,
but more importantly, green tea is extracting (from the tea bag) into the water. After steeping for a
few minutes, you sip from your mug and taste not just hot water -- but delicious green tea, too.
Although making tea is a very well known process, it's also an ideal example of how leaching works.
You took a solid matrix (tea bag), introduced it to a liquid (hot water) and extracted green tea
(substance) to make a cup of tea. Now that we understand what leaching is, let's look at the process
in more detail, specifically regarding commercial applications.

The Leaching Process

Within the chemical industry, the process of leaching is commonly referred to as extraction.
Diagram 2 illustrates a broad overview of how the leaching (i.e. extraction) process works.
First, the solvent comes into contact with the solid matrix. A solvent is usually a liquid that functions
to dissolve a substance or solute. A solute is the substance being dissolved by a solvent. Thus, the
solvent would be the liquid and the solute would be the substance you would like to extract from the
solid matrix. Again referring to our tea example, the solute would be your green tea extracted while
the solvent would be the hot water.

Diagram 2: Step-by-Step Leaching Process For Chemical

Industry Use

Next, the solvent travels through the solid matrix, separating the substance (solute) from this matrix
so that it can be collected. This step is commonly referred to as percolation, which is really just a
fancy word for filtering. You are essentially filtering out (i.e. separating) the solute you desire from
the solid matrix, using a solvent.
Both steps lead to the end result, which is extraction of the desired substance (i.e. a solute). If we do
a quick overview, there are three main parts to leaching you should remember: Contact, Separate,
Extract. You let your solvent come into contact with the solid matrix, separate the desired
substance from the solid matrix using the solvent, and extract the desired substance for collection.