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Green chemistry

Designed to dissolve

Many solvents are unpleasant but essential industrial chemicals. Supercritical carbon dioxide would be a viable ‘green’ alternative but its use has been restricted by its limited solvent power. This is about to change.

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Figure 1: Phase diagram for carbon dioxide.
Figure 2: The design of CO2-philic materials.

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Correspondence to Walter Leitner.

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Leitner, W. Designed to dissolve. Nature 405, 129–130 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35012181

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