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Updated: Jan 20, 2026

Supercritical Nitrogen Processing for the Purification of Reactive Porous Materials
Published on: May 15, 2015
Effect of Supercritical CO2 as Reaction Medium for Selective Hydrogenation of Acetophenone to 1-Phenylethanol
Santosh R More1, Ganapati D Yadav1
1Department of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Chemical Technology, Nathalal Parekh Marg, Matunga, Mumbai 400 019, India.
Abstract:
1-Phenylethanol (PhE) is widely employed in the pharmaceutical industry as an anti-inflammatory and analgesic drug, as well as in chewing gums and yogurts as a food additive. In this work, we have investigated the selective synthesis of 1-phenylethanol (PhE) by hydrogenation of acetophenone using supercritical CO2 as a solvent. Supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) replaces organic solvent because it is inexpensive, nontoxic, nonflammable, inert, and environmentally benign. Polyurea-based encapsulated mono- and bimetallic catalysts were synthesized and characterized using different characterization techniques. The effects of various reaction parameters, such as co-solvent, catalyst loading, hydrogen pressure, total scCO2 pressure, and temperature, were studied to determine the reaction kinetics.
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