4. Developing innovative materials

Over the last twenty years or so, numerous research projects have been carried out using supercritical fluids – mainly CO ₂ and water – to develop "new materials" with a wide range of applications.

• Extraction

  The most widespread industrial application seems to be the debinding of ceramics, achieved by extraction of the binder with supercritical CO ₂ , which results in a highly homogeneous object without bubble formation and without geometric modification during processing. Another application involves extracting residual solvents from porous media or fine powders, such as metal powders processed in non-aqueous media.

• Cleaning and surface treatment

  The substitution...