supercritical fluid state

A supercritical fluid is a phase that occurs for a gas at a specific temperature and pressure such that the gas will no longer condense to a liquid regardless of how high the pressure is raised. It is a state intermediate between a gas and a…

Gaseous substances beyond a specific temperature and pressure (the critical point) become a supercritical fluid, a state that is more dense than a gas but less dense than a liquid. A supercritical fluid can thus dissolve (i.e., solvate) species better than a gas…

…scale range are amenable to supercritical-fluid separations. Size-exclusion methods are involved at molecular weights above 1,000. Field-flow fractionation extends the size range to colloids and microscopic particles.

…of water disappears—it becomes a supercritical fluid, the density of which can be varied from liquidlike to gaslike by varying its temperature and pressure. If the density of supercritical water is high enough, ionic solutes are readily soluble, as is true for “normal” water; but, surprisingly, this supercritical fluid can…