Supercritical Carbon Dioxide
“Supercritical carbon dioxide refers to carbon dioxide that is in a fluid state while also being at or above both its critical temperature and pressure, yielding rather uncommon properties. Carbon dioxide usually behaves as a gas in air at STP or as a solid called dry ice when frozen. If the temperature and pressure are both increased from STP to be at or above the critical point for carbon dioxide, it can adopt properties midway between a gas and a liquid. More specifically, it behaves as a supercritical fluid above its critical temperature (31.1 °C) and critical pressure (72.9 atm/7.39 MPa), expanding to fill its container like a gas but with a density like that of a liquid. Supercritical CO2is becoming an important commercial and industrial solvent due to its role in chemical extraction in addition to its low toxicity and environmental impact. The relatively low temperature of the process and the stability of CO2also allows most compounds to be extracted with little damage or denaturing.” (Wikipedia, Supercritical Carbon Dioxide, 1/5/2011)
Fluids
Materials
Mixing with Supercritical Carbon Dioxide
Supercritical CO2 Extractions
Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Foaming
Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Polymerization |
Supercritical CO2 Solutions
Recent Journal Articles
10/29/2010
Vesicle formation of polystyrene-block-poly (ethylene oxide) block copolymers induced by supercritical CO2 treatment
(3808-3813) Polymer 51 #16 (2010)
Xu et al found that when PS-b-PEO block copolymer solutions in tetrahydrofuran (THF) are treated with supercritical CO2 at 70 °C for different times, PS-b-PEO copolymers first assemble into aggregated spheres; then aggregated spheres change into large compound micelles and finally evolve into vesicles.(RDC 12/22/2010)