Solubility of functional compounds in supercritical CO2: Data evaluation and modelling

Abstract

The solubility data of functional compounds in supercritical carbon dioxide were compiled and discussed. The investigation included essential oils, phenolic compounds, carotenoids, tocopherols, carboxylic acids, alkaloids and vitamins. The data were correlated with four mathematical models. The parameters of each model were adjusted for each compound using the experimental data from literature. From the evaluation of the compiled data, it was possible to observe that the essential oils are the most soluble compounds and the phenolic compounds are the least soluble compounds in supercritical CO2, in the range of temperatures and pressures that were evaluated. In relation to the models, it was observed that the prediction of the solubilities of the biocompounds in supercritical fluids was acceptable for all the models, with the Jiang et al. equation being the model that presented the best results to predict the solubility for all functional groups.