COLLABORATION IN BASIC SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING (COBASE)

Aiming to capitalize on an extraordinary opportunity for research synergism, Charles Eckert, Director of the Specialty Separations Center at Georgia Tech, invited Michal Roth of the Institute of Analytical Chemistry in Brno for a two-month visit during January-March 2001. By working with Roth, a world-recognized authority on the use of chromatographic methods for determining thermophysical properties, Eckert hoped to develop new methods for measuring solute activities in nearcritical and supercritical fluids under extreme conditions.

During his stay in Atlanta, Roth worked not only with Eckert and his staff, but also with the research group of Prof. Charles Liotta of the Georgia Tech Chemistry Department. During a series of seminars he presented on "Chromatographic Determination of Physical Properties for Separations and Transport," Roth demonstrated and explained his methods to dozens of faculty members and students from various departments. He also provided useful guidance to Richard Coelho, a chemical engineering student who expects to complete his PhD in 2002.

All in all, Eckert reports that he and his visitor made very substantial progress in their efforts to determine the physical properties of nearcritical water (water at temperatures between 250 and 350 degrees Celsius). They are using both dynamic and headspace chromatography to measure the solute limiting activity coefficients in nearcritical water. These results will then be applied to the creation of environmentally benign reaction and separation processes using hot water instead of hazardous organic solvents.