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

Abstract

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 described for thermally matched microwave and non-microwave conditions. The results 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 diol column, compared to comparable experimental conditions in which no microwave field was present. These tentative results indicate the presence of a possible non-thermal microwave effect that may be of relevance to both interfacial reactions and separations procedures.