Journal of the University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy, XXXVII, 2002, Book 4

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

IMPREGNATION OF POLYMER MATRIX ASSISTED BY SUPERCRITICAL
CO2. SPECTROSCOPIC MONITORING OF BREAKTHROUGH CONCENTRATION CURVES
S. Diankov, P. Subra, I. Pentchev

IMPREGNATION OF POLYMER MATRIX ASSISTED BY SUPERCRITICAL CO2. SPECTROSCOPIC MONITORING OF BREAKTHROUGH CONCENTRATION CURVES
S. Diankov, P. Subra*, I. Pentchev

University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy, 8 Kl. Ohridski, 1756 Sofia, Bulgaria e-mail: iv_sdiankov@abv.bg LIMHP, Paris XIII, av. J.B.Clement 93430 Villetaneuse

Received 2 October 2002 Accepted 22 October 2002

 

This paper presents a study of impregnation of o-benzoic (salicylic) acid on polymer support assisted by supercritical (SC) CO2. The experimental set-up is made to allow solubilisation and posterior adsorption of the solute on the support to be studied via outlet concentration curves. A method for determination of outlet concentration by regular sampling and subsequent High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) is proposed. The results are compared to on-line measurements by High Pressure (HP) UV-Spectrophotometry. The main advantage of the online measurement is the possibility of continuous monitoring of outlet concentration without perturbating the system and less accumulation of manipulation errors compared to sample taking. The inconvenience is that HP Spectrophotometry always needs calibration when operational conditions changed. Polymer used is PolyMethylMetAcrylate (PMMA). As a solvent and vector gaz a SC-carbon dioxyde (CO2) is used.
Keywords: supercritical CO2, impregnation