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Green chemistry

Designed to dissolve

Nature volume 405, pages 129–130 (2000)Cite this article

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.

Compressed carbon dioxide is often promoted as an environmentally friendly solvent having useful properties for a wide range of technical and chemical processes1,2,3. A growing number of commercial operations and pilot activities illustrate that CO2 — especially in its supercritical state — can combine ecological and economic benefits. But the poor solubility of many interesting target substances places a severe restriction on the widespread use of CO2 as a solvent. In many cases, either unrealistically high pressures or expensive ‘CO2-philic’ materials (substances with a high affinity for CO2 solutions at lower pressures) are needed. On page 165 of this issue, Eric Beckman and his colleagues4 from the University of Pittsburgh introduce a new strategy for designing CO2-philic materials from readily available components, which overcomes some of the oldest prejudices about the solvent properties of CO2.

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

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  1. Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Platz 1, Mülheim an der Ruhr, D-45470 , Germany

    Walter Leitner

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  1. Walter Leitner
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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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