Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
6.7 Electrolysis in Supercritical
Fluids
The commercialization of electrosynthetic
processes has been restricted by the limited
solubility of substrates and products in
conventional electrolytic solutions, the poor
interphase mass transport characteristics
associated with the two-phase system in which
the reaction occurs at solid (electrode)-liquid
(electrolyte) interfaces, the low selectivity of the
desired reaction products and the complex
processing schemes often used to recover
products.
Supercritical fluid solvents can overcome many
of the limitations associated with conventional
solvents such as water and organic solvents.
Supercritical fluids have traditionally been
applied to chromatography, extraction, cleaning
and so on [20]. Moreover, they are becoming
widely recognized as useful media for organic
and polymer syntheses in a range of laboratory
and industrial processes because of their low
toxicity, ease of solvent removal, potential for
recycling and variation of reaction rates [21,22].
A supercritical fluid can be defined as any
substance that is above its critical temperature
(
T
c
) and critical pressure (
P
c
), and exists as a
single phase (
Figure 6.14
). The
physico-chemical properties of a supercritical
fluid are between those of liquids and gases,
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