TECHNOLOGY |
For the first time, scientists have turned supercritical CO2 into a gel. The achievement is a potential boon to industry, because the new gel could serve as an environmentally friendlier alternative to organic solvents. The researchers originally set out to design molecules that would increase the visc. of supercritical CO2. To their surprise, they discovered a mole. that gelled the highly pressurized CO2. Another surprise; when the researchers released the pressure, the CO2 evaporated from this gel & left behind a solid material made up of interconnected networks of designed mole. & had extremely low d.
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