REACTION CHEMISTRIES IN SUPERCRITICAL-FLUID SOLUTIONS

Supercritical fluids are versatile solvents in organic separations and extractions. The application of supercritical fluids to metal extract ions is a recent extension of this technology. This application requir es that three criteria be met: enhanced ligand selectivity/specificity , increased solubility of the ligand in the supercritical fluid, and e ase of metal removal from the ligand after extraction. Recent efforts are described studying metal complexation and organometallic chemistry in supercritical fluids as a function of pressure and temperature. Th ese investigations involve high-pressure NMR and FTIR studies of organ ometallic compounds in fluid solutions. The application of these spect roscopic techniques to the investigation of inorganic species in super critical fluids is described in conjunction with the molecular details revealed of fluid solution structure and metal complexation dynamics. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.