Supercritical fluid reactive deposition: a process intensification technique for synthesis of nanostructured materials

Abstract

Supercritical fluid reactive deposition (SFRD) is a promising process intensification technique for synthesis of a wide variety of nanostructured materials. The enhanced mass transfer characteristics of supercritical fluids (SCFs) coupled with high solubilities of reducing gases in SCFs provide many advantages related to equipment size and time minimization over conventional techniques. Among SCFs, the emphasis has been placed on supercritical CO2 (scCO(2)) which is non-toxic, cheap and leaves no residue on the treated medium. Moreover, in SFRD, multiple processes such as dissolution, adsorption, reaction, and purification are combined in a single piece of equipment which is an excellent example of process integration for process intensification. In this review, the fundamental thermodynamic and kinetic aspects of the technology are described in detail. The studies in the literature on synthesis of a wide variety of nanostructured materials including supported nanoparticles, films, and ion-exchanged zeolites by SFRD are reviewed and summarized. The applications of these materials as catalysts and sensors are described. The review hopes to lead to further studies on further development of this technology for a wide variety of applications.