Phase behavior and reverse micelle formation in supercritical CO
with DTAB and F-pentanol for decontamination of radioactive wastes
Kurahashi, Kensuke; Tomioka, Osamu
; Meguro, Yoshihiro 
To develop a metal separation method using supercritical CO
(scCO
) solvent for the decontamination process of radioactive wastes, the reverse micelle formation in scCO
was investigated. Dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (DTAB) as a surfactant to form the reverse micelles and 2,2,3,3,4,4,5,5-octafluoro-1-pentanol (F-pentanol) as a modifier to increase the solubility of DTAB into scCO
were used. The reverse micelles could be formed by using 0.02 mol/dm
DTAB and 0.45 mol/dm
F-pentanol. A water concentration dissolved in scCO
was increased with an increase of pressure, and 0.42 mol/dm
water, which was 3 times larger than that in the neat CO
, could be dissolved in scCO
at 38 MPa. Moreover, 0.1 mol/dm
HNO
could dissolve at the same pressure as water. On the other hand, it was found that the solubility of water at outside of reverse micelles increased with F-pentanol. The ratio of water and F-pentanol affected the phase behavior of water in scCO
.