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Happy Holidays from all of us at Applied Separations.

Supercritical Fluids Work!

Supercritical Fluid (SCF) technology works! With today's innovative, easy-to-use systems from Applied Separations, your idea will be tomorrow's green process! No petroleum solvents and no toxic residue. Some of the industries and uses for supercritical fluids include:

• Natural products
  • Medicinals
  • Biomass extractions
  • Fragrances/essential oils
• Pharmaceuticals/foods
  • Natural products
  • Enzymatic reactions
  • Reaction cleanups
  • Hydrogenations
• Material Science
  • Nanoparticles
  • Aerogels
  • Coatings
  • Metal Injection Molding (MIM)
  • Impregnations
• Electronics
  • IC Cleaning
  • Micro Electro-Mechanical Machines (MEM) cleaning
  • Resist developer
• Textiles
  • Dyeing
  • Impregnations
• Cleaning
  • Critical cleaning machine parts
  • ICs
  • MEMs
• Subcritical/Supercritical Water

For more information, visit the Supercritical Fluid section of Applied Separations' website

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What is a Supercritical Fluid, anyway?

Carbon dioxide is in its supercritical fluid state when both the temperature and pressure equal or exceed the critical point of 31°C and 73 atm (see diagram). In its supercritical state, CO₂ has both gas-like and liquid-like qualities, and it is this dual characteristic of supercritical fluids that provides the ideal conditions for extracting compounds with a high degree of recovery in a short period of time.

By controlling or regulating pressure and temperature, the density, or solvent strength, of supercritical fluids can be altered to simulate organic solvents ranging from chloroform to methylene chloride to hexane. This dissolving power can be applied to purify, extract, fractionate, infuse, and recrystallize a wide array of materials.

Because CO₂ is non-polar, a polar organic co-solvent (or modifier) can be added to the supercritical fluid for processing polar compounds. By controlling the level of pressure/temperature/modifier, supercritical CO2 can dissolve a broad range of compounds, both polar and non-polar.

 

For more information, visit the Supercritical section of Applied Separations' website: 

http://appliedseparations.com/Supercritical/Supercritical_CO2.asp

To view a presentation that explains 'What is a Supercritical Fluid' in more detail, visit:

http://appliedseparations.com/ASInteractive/Overviews/SCF/What_is_SFE/player....