Monthly Archives: February 2012

Supercritical fluids and in particular supercritical carbon dioxide have shown to be a viable technology for a variety of extractions. While process conditions require high pressures, technological advances have now made it feasible to acquire such equipment for the undergraduate … Continue reading →

Supercritical fluid extraction was successfully used to extract peanut oil from peanuts at temperatures between 40 and 80 °C and pressures of 5000-7000 psi. Static/dynamic cycling was used with a 10 minute static soak time, followed by a 10 minute … Continue reading →

Substituted phenols are an important class of compounds having widespread use (germicides, disinfectants, ingredients in fuel, etc.).  In this work, the solubilities of selected substituted phenols (2,5-dimethylphenol, 2,4,6-trimethylphenol,2,3,5-trimethylphenol, 4-phenylphenol, 4-tertbutylphenol) in binary (single solute + SCF CO2) and ternary (two … Continue reading →

Carbon dioxide is widely recognized today as a “Green Chemistry” solvent. The unique physical and chemical properties of carbon dioxide in its supercritical state, namely the absence of surface tension, low viscosity, high diffusivity, and easily tunable solvent strength provide … Continue reading →

Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction is currently used in several food and pharmaceutical manufacturing applications. Its “greener” nature makes it a desirable option when compared with traditional organic solvent extractions. The purpose of this work is to compare the cost of … Continue reading →

The purpose of this study was to test the utility of rapid expansion of supercritical solution (RESS) based cocrystallizations in inducing polymorph conversion and crystal disruption of chlorpropamide (CPD). CPD crystals were recrystallized by the RESS process utilizing supercritical carbon … Continue reading →

Substituted phenols are an important class of compounds having widespread use (germicides, disinfectants, ingredients in fuel, etc.) There is little information in the literature regarding the solubilities of phenols in SCF CO2. Accurate and precise solubility data for the compounds … Continue reading →

Consistent production of solid drug materials of desired particle and crystallographic morphologies under cGMP conditions is a frequent challenge to pharmaceutical researchers.  The purpose of this article is therefore to provide the information and resources necessary for startup research involving … Continue reading →

Of the variety of methods used to synthesize CNTs(carbon nanotubes), metalencapsulated dendrimers represent a particularly attractive catalyst for nanotube growth.  For such nanocomposite growth, our synthetic strategy has been to find a method to control the size and distribution of … Continue reading →

Within the last five years, there has been an explosion of research in supercritical fluids; more recent reports are now exploiting this medium for nanomaterials synthesis.  An important goal for undergraduate curricula should be the constant upgrading of content to … Continue reading →

Mitragyna speciosa is a narcotic plant but with specific medicinal importance. The main components of the leaves of M. speciosa are indole alkaloids. Previous scientific researches have shown that the alkaloidal extracts possess very potent anti-inflammatory, analgesic and opioid properties. … Continue reading →

Cellulose and corn stover were subjected to a reaction with polar cosolvents (methanol and water)/CO2 at subcritical and supercritical conditions. Resulting products from a cellulose reaction at 300oC analyzed by GCMS consisted of a mixture of organic acids, sugars, and … Continue reading →

Catharantrus roseus is a well-known medicinal plant belonging to the family Apocynaceae. It is regarded as a rich source of pharmaceutically important indole alkaloids that are used as antitumor, hypotensive and antiarrhythmic agents.  Among the indole alkaloids, vinblastine and vincristine … Continue reading →

Aluminum hydride (alane) has received a great deal of interest in recent years due its possible use as a hydrogen storage material. Alane contains 10.1 weight % hydrogen which meets the 2015 target set by the DOE of 9 weight … Continue reading →