Perturbation of a solid phase separation process by a non-thermal microwave effect

The concept of a non-thermal chemical microwave effect has been speculated in the Literature for some time. In this paper the separation of phenol, in hexane, by diol functional groups immobilised on a silica backbone is desc ribed for thermally matched microwave and non-microwave conditions. The res ults indicate that under the influence of a 120 W continuous flux microwave e-field at 2450 MHz phenol was retained approximately 6% longer by the dio l column, compared to comparable experimental conditions in which no microw ave field was present. These tentative results indicate the presence of a p ossible non-thermal microwave effect that may be of relevance to both inter facial reactions and separations procedures. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.