Supercritical fluid clustering

In a subsequent study, they used ethylene for a dual purpose, as a substrate as well as a supercritical fluid solvent. This notoriously unreactive olefin to PKR served nicely to give 2-substituted cyclopentenones. Reaction efficiency of each alkyne substrate can be tuned by changing catalyst precursors. Not only Co2(CO)8 but also the two cobalt clusters [Co4(CO)i2] and [Co4(GO)n P(OPh)3 ] work well for some substrates (Equation (8)). The comparison with Rautenstrauch s result clearly shows the beneficial effect of this approach. 

Photochemistry can be used to demonstrate solvent effects in supercritical fluids. The analysis revealed trimodal fluorescence lifetime distributions near the critical temperature, which can be explained by the presence of solvent-solute and solute-solute clustering. This local aggregation causes an increase in nonradiative relaxations and, therefore, a decrease in the observed fluorescence lifetimes. Concentration and density gradients are responsible for these three unique lifetimes (trimodal) in the supercritical fluid, as contrasted with the single lifetime observed in a typical organic solvent. The... 

The chlorine atom cage effect was used as a highly sensitive probe for studying the effect of viscosity and the possible role of solvent clusters on cage lifetimes and reactivity for reactions carried out in supercritical fluid solvents. The results of these experiments provide no indication of an enhanced cage effect near the critical point in SC-CO2 solvent. The magnitude of the cage effect observed in SC-CO2 at all pressures examined is well within what is anticipated on the basis of extrapolations from conventional solvents (Fletcher et al., 1998). 

Initial supercritical fluid work was on C02 (21-23) and indicated weak interactions between the fluid and solute. Additional work has appeared on Xe, SF6, C2H, and NH3 (24,25). For all fluids, spectral shifts were observed with fluid density. Yonker, Smith and co-workers (24-26,28) compared their results to the McRae continuum model for dipolar solvation (56,57), which is based on Onsanger reaction field theory (58). Over a limited density range, there was agreement between the experimental data and the model (24-26,28), but conditions existed where the predicted linear relationship was not followed (28). At low fluid densities, this deviation was attributed (qualitatively) to fluid clustering around the solute (28). 

Steady-state fluorescence spectroscopy has also been used to study solvation processes in supercritical fluids. For example, Okada et al. (29) and Kajimoto and co-workers (30) studied intramolecular excited-state complexation (exciplex) and charge-transfer formation, respectively, in supercritical CHF3. In the latter studies, the observed spectral shift was more than expected based on the McRae theory (56,57), this was attributed to cluster formation. In other studies, Brennecke and Eckert (5,31,44,45) examined the fluorescence of pyrene in supercritical CO2, C2HSteady-state emission spectra were used to show density augmentation near the critical point. Additional studies investigated the formation of the pyrene excimer (i.e., the reaction of excited- and ground-state pyrene monomers to form the excited-state dimer). These authors concluded that the observance of the pyrene excimer in the supercritical fluid medium was a consequence of increased solute-solute interactions. 

Influence of Solvent—Solute and Solute—Solute Clustering on Chemical Reactions in Supercritical Fluids... 

In supercritical fluids, the possibility of local composition enhancements of cosolvent about a solute suggests that we should see enhancement of anion fluorescence if the water cosolvent clusters effectively about the 2-naphthol solute. Although in liquids the water concentration must be >30% to see anion emission, the higher diffusivity and density fluctuations in SCFs could allow stabilization of the anion at much lower water concentrations provided that the water molecules provide sufficient structure. Therefore the purpose of these experiments was to investigate 2-naphthol fluorescence in supercritical CO 2 with water cosolvent in the highly compressible region of the mixture to probe the local environment about the solute. 

There is one more unique feature of supercritical fluid solvents that will be a recurring theme in this chapter. Several studies have demonstrated that near the critical point, the density of the solvent about a solute is enhanced relative to the bulk density (solvent/solute clustering). As such, the mobility of the solute may be impeded to an extent greater than expected on the basis of the bulk viscosity. This phenomenon may also affect reactivity for reactions that are diffusion-controlled or for which cage effects are important, particularly near the critical point (vide infra). 

The racemate of 1,3,2-benzodithiazole 1-oxide 42 was separated by supercritical fluid chromatography on the (A j )-Whelk-( )l column with supercritical carbon dioxide containing 20% methanol as a mobile phase. Peak areas of enantiomers prior to and after the separation, used for the calculation of the enantiomerization barrier, were detected by computer-assisted peak deconvolution of peak clusters registered on chromatograms using computer software <2002CH1334>. 

Another class of systems for which the use of the continuum dielectric theory would be unable to capture an essential solvation mechanism are supercritical fluids. In these systems, an essential component of solvation is the local density enhancement [26,33,72], A change in the solute dipole on electronic excitation triggers a change in the extent of solvent clustering around the solute. The dynamics of the resulting density fluctuations is unlikely to be adequately modeled by using the dielectric permittivity as input in the case of dipolar supercritical fluids. 

Another unusual state is the supercritical fluid, attained by clusters of molecules (e.g., C02) which become polar—that is, probably order so as to have small net overall dipole moments, even though the individual molecules have zero dipole moments. Therefore supercritical C02 (above 31.1 °C and above 72.9 atm) can be used in chemical separations when more normal polar solvents fail. 

Several studies have shown that clustering also occurs around negative ions in supercritical fluids. The mobility data for C F in xenon [see Fig. 3(a)] indicate that the clusters around C F are slightly smaller [see Fig. 3(b)] than those around the positive ion but the pressure dependence is similar. Measurements of the mobility of in argon at a temperature just above the critical temperature indicated the O2 ion also moves with a large solvation shell. 

FIGURE 7.2 Caffeine rejection rate (o) and permeability constant ( ) obtained during caffeine/SC CO2 separation on a nanofilter having a thin layer of Zr02-Ti02 ( = 308 K, transmembrane pressure = 0.2 MPa). Values of estimated cluster size for each experimental point are indicated. (Adapted from Chiu, Y.-W. and Tan, C.-S., J. Supercrit. Fluids, 21, 81, 2001.)... 

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