ABSTRACT
The analytical characterization of different types of (nano)materials prepared by means of supercritical fluid technology is discussed in this section. The assessment of the performance of such materials may result in a great challenge that requires a thorough evaluation of physicochemical, morphological, and textural properties. The application of chemometrics to supercritical fluid technologies for both process optimization and data analysis is an important subject of this chapter. Hence, strategies for systematic design of experiments are applied to investigate the key factors affecting a given process. Besides, principal component analysis and related methods are frequently used to fish into the complex multivariate
nature of supercritical fluid processes. Representative examples dealing with factor evaluation, optimization of interrelated variables, classification of samples, and prediction of product properties are described. Specific examples are summarized in Chapters 19 and 20. In Chapter 19, vibrational spectroscopy is used to reveal valuable information about polymeric samples treated with scCO2, while methods based on the axisymmetric drop shape analysis for the evaluation of the interfacial and surface tension of fluid interfaces are reviewed in Chapter 20.
