Enhanced distribution kinetics in liquid-liquid extraction by CO2-expanded solvents

Liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) is a useful extraction technique for highly complex samples, however, it suffers from being slow due to mass transfer limitations. Carbon dioxide expanded liquids (CXL) is a good replacement of traditional organic solvents for extraction, and for the first time, the use of CXL in LLE was evaluated. An equipment consisting of a high-pressure view cell with on-line gas chromatography analysis was built and validated, and thereafter used to obtain novel phase equilibria data of the CO2/n-octanol/water system. The system was connected on-line to HPLC to study the potential of CO2-expanded liquid-liquid extraction (CXLLE) of pharmaceutical contaminants in water. In comparison with traditional LLE performed under similar experimental conditions, the addition of CO2 as a viscosity-lowering entrainer significantly increased the speed of mass transfer. Changes in compound log D (octanol-water distribution ratio) values brought by the CO2 expansion also proved the possibility of selectivity-tuning in CXLLE. (C) 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.