Pulse Radiolysis in Supercritical Rare Gas Fluids

Recently, supercritical fluids have become quite popular in chemical and semiconductor industries for applications in chemical synthesis, extraction, separation processes, and surface cleaning. These applications are based on: the high dissolving power due to density build-up around solute molecules, and the ability to tune the conditions of a supercritical fluid, such as density and temperature, that are most suitable for a particular reaction. The rare gases also possess these properties and have the added advantage of being supercritical at room temperature. Information about the density buildup around both charged and neutral species can be obtained from fundamental studies of volume changes in the reactions of charged species in supercritical fluids. Volume changes are much larger in supercritical fluids than in ordinary solvents because of their higher compressibility. Hopefully basic studies, such as discussed here, of the behavior of charged species in supercritical gases will provide information useful for the utilization of these solvents in industrial applications