Journal of Supercritical Fluids, Vol.136, 95-101, 2018
Dynamic pH determination at high pressure of aqueous additive mixtures in contact with dense CO2
A system consisting of a high-pressure tolerant microfluidic glass chip, high-speed absorbance imaging, and image processing has been developed to study rapid dynamic events like pH change in a multiphase flow. The system gives both kinetic and quantitative equilibrated information. By tracking the interactions of aqueous additive mixtures and liquid CO2, at 80 bar and 24 degrees C, under flow, measurement at a given P, T condition is done in 0.25 s. The acidification rate to steady state was found to be mass transport limited, occurring in less than 1 s. For 30 mM of the additives ammonium acetate and ammonium formate, equilibrium pH of 4.5 and 4.1, respectively, was seen. These additives are of key importance in common mobile phases used in SFC.
Keywords:Supercritical fluid chromatography;High-pressure microfluidics;Additive salts;Dense CO2;Multiphase flow;Image analysis