Fluorinated surfactants in supercritical CO2

Liquid or supercritical carbon dioxide has important environmental and economic advantages over petrochemical solvents currently used for industrial processes. However, low solubility in CO2, particularly of polar compounds, is a hurdle to its implementation as an acceptable alternative. These solubility problems have been overcome by employing specialised fluorinated surfactants to stabilise water nano-droplets as water-in-supercritical/liquid CO2 microemulsions. Such novel microemulsions can now facilitate innovative 'green-and-clean' applications of carbon dioxide technology. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.