Solubility of carbon dioxide in dimethylsulfoxide and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone at elevated pressure

Vapor–Liquid Equilibria of Quaternary Systems of Interest for the Supercritical Antisolvent Process

In the Supercritical Antisolvent process (SAS), the thermodynamic behavior of complex multicomponent systems can influence the particles’ morphology. However, due to the limited thermodynamic data for multicomponent systems, the effect of solutes is often neglected, and the system is considered as pseudo-binary. It has been demonstrated that the presence of a solute can significantly influence the thermodynamic behavior of the system. In particular, when the SAS process is adopted for the production of drug/polymer coprecipitated microparticles, the effect of both the drug and the polymer in the solvent/CO2 mixture should be considered. In this work, the effect of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), used as the carrier, and of the liposoluble vitamins menadione (MEN) and α-tocopherol (TOC), as model drugs, was investigated as a deviation from the fundamental thermodynamic behavior of the DMSO/CO2 binary system. Vapor–liquid equilibria (VLE) were evaluated at 313 K, with a PVP concentration in the organic solution equal to 20 mg/mL. The effect of the presence of PVP, MEN, and TOC on DMSO/CO2 VLE at 313 K was studied; furthermore, the effect of PVP/MEN and PVP/TOC, at a polymer/drug ratio of 5/1 and 3/1, was determined. Moreover, SAS precipitation experiments were performed at the same polymer/drug ratios using a pressure of 90 bar. Thermodynamic studies revealed significant changes in phase behavior for DMSO/CO2/PVP/TOC and DMSO/CO2/PVP/MEN systems compared to the binary DMSO/CO2 system. From the analysis of the effect of the presence of a single compound on the binary system VLE, it was noted that PVP slightly affected the thermodynamic behavior of the system. In contrast, these effects were more evident for the DMSO/CO2/TOC and DMSO/CO2/MEN systems. SAS precipitation experiments produced PVP/MEN and PVP/TOC microparticles, and the obtained morphology was justified considering the quaternary systems VLE.

Microparticle Production of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient Using Supercritical Antisolvent Process: A Case Study of Allopurinol

Allopurinol is a relatively water-insoluble drug and, consequently, its efficacy was frequently limited by the dissolution or solubility phenomena. The purpose of this study was to improve the solid-state properties and dissolution behavior of allopurinol via a supercritical antisolvent (SAS) process using CO2 as an antisolvent. The effects of operating parameters: temperature (35–55 °C), pressure (80–100 bar), solution concentration (8–15 mg/mL), CO2 flow rate (2–4 L/min), and solution flow rate (0.25–0.50 mL/min) were studied. Moreover, the physical properties of unprocessed and SAS-processed allopurinol were analyzed by SEM, FTIR, DSC, TGA, and PXRD. The dissolution rate of unprocessed and SAS-processed allopurinol was also investigated and compared. In this case study, allopurinol was effectively micronized from 15.3 μm to 1.35 μm at the optimal operating condition. The results verify that the solid-state properties and dissolution rate of allopurinol can be controlled and improved via the micronization process by using SAS technology.

Synergistic effect of supercritical CO2 and organic solvent on exfoliation of graphene: experiment and atomistic simulation studies

In this work, experiments and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are carried out to explore the synergistic effect of supercritical CO2 (scCO2) and organic solvent on intercalation and exfoliation of graphene. Experimental characterizations via transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and Raman spectroscopy indicate that by combining scCO2 and organic solvent (N-methylpyrrolidone, NMP), few-layer graphene is successfully exfoliated from graphite, among which over 30% is 1-4 layers, and 55% is 5-8 layers. Systematic experiments have shown that compared with pure scCO2 or NMP, the mixed scCO2 and NMP can significantly increase the amount of graphene and the rate of few-layer graphene, and the optimum volume fraction of NMP is 25%. Parallel MD simulations indicate that the scCO2 molecules first diffuse into the interlayer of graphite, and then the larger NMP molecules insert as wedges and further expand interlayer spacing, promoting intercalation and exfoliation. The iteration of scCO2 diffusion and the NMP wedge can generate positive feedback to improve the exfoliation productivity and efficiency. This work explores the synergistic effect of scCO2 and NMP on the exfoliation of graphene, which may provide useful insights for exfoliation of other two dimensional materials.

Purification of Polybutylene Terephthalate by Oligomer Removal Using a Compressed CO2 Antisolvent

In this study, the cyclic oligomers in the highly chemically resistant polyester polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) were effectively removed using a compressed CO₂ antisolvent technique in which 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-propanol (HFIP) was used as the solvent. In addition to the oligomers, tetrahydrofuran was completely removed because of its low molecular weight and liquid state. The effects of the operating variables, including temperature, pressure, and the PBT concentration in HFIP, on the degree of removal of the oligomers were systematically studied using experimental design and the response surface methodology. The most appropriate operating conditions for the purification of PBT were 8.3 MPa and 23.4 °C when using 4.5 wt % PBT in HFIP. Under these conditions, the cyclic trimers and dimers could be removed by up to 81.4% and 95.7%, respectively, in a very short operating time.

Photocatalytically Active Superstructures of Quantum Dots and Iron Porphyrins for Reduction of CO2 to CO in Water

This paper describes the use of electrostatic assemblies of negatively charged colloidal CuInS₂/ZnS quantum dot (QD) sensitizers and positively charged, trimethylamino-functionalized iron tetraphenylporphyrin catalysts (FeTMA) to photoreduce CO₂ to CO in water upon illumination with 450 nm light. This system achieves a turnover number (TON) of CO (per FeTMA) of 450 after 30 h of illumination, with a selectivity of 99%. Its sensitization efficiency (TON per Joule of photons absorbed) is a factor of 11 larger than the previous record for photosensitization of an iron porphyrin catalyst for this reaction, held by a system in which both QDs and metal porphyrin were uncharged. Steady-state and time-resolved optical spectroscopy provides evidence for electrostatic assembly of QDs and FeTMA. Control of the size of the assemblies with addition of a screening counterion, K⁺, and a correlation between their measured size and their catalytic activity, indicates that the enhancement in performance of this system over the analogous uncharged system is due to the proximity of the FeTMA catalyst to multiple light-absorbing QDs and the selective formation of QD-FeTMA contacts (rather than QD-QD or FeTMA-FeTMA contacts). This system therefore shows the ability to funnel photoinduced electrons to a reaction center, which is crucial for carrying out reactions that require multistep redox processes under low photon flux, and thus is an important advance in developing artificial photocatalytic systems that function in natural light.