Photocatalytic and Chemical Oxidation of Organic Compounds in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

Abstract

Determine if photocatalytic or other clean oxidation chemistry can be applied to the removal of organic or inorganic contaminants that are introduced into supercritical carbon dioxide during its use as an extraction and cleaning medium in DOE environmental and waste minimization applications. The targets are those contaminants left in solution after the bulk of the solutes have been separated from the fluid phase by changing pressure and/or temperature (but not evaporating the CO2). This is applicable to development of efficient separations of contaminants from the fluid stream and will strengthen pollution prevention strategies that eliminate hazardous solvents and cleaning agents. Explore the use of supercritical carbon dioxide as a solvent for the photocatalytic oxidation of organic compounds and compare it to other types of oxidation chemistry. This will add to the fundamental understanding of photocatalytic oxidation chemistry of particulate semiconductors and provide new knowledge about conditions that may have relevance to the chemical fixation of carbon dioxide under photocatalytic conditions.