ABSTRACT
Since the discovery of microemulsion phases in supercritical fluids in the mid-1980s [1] and their subsequent characterization [2–16], there has been much interest in exploiting the unusual properties of the supercritical fluid phase in applications of these systems. One such application is as a new type of solvent for chemical reactions. In the following sections, I discuss the properties of these systems for reactions, review the progress so far, and analyze the future potential. As a prelude to these discussions, I begin with a brief overview of what is known about the molecular structure of microemulsions in near-critical and supercritical fluids. The details of the primary and secondary molecular structures of various types of microemulsion phases can dramatically affect the reactivity in these systems.
