COUPLING OF SUPERCRITICAL FLUID EXTRACTION WITH CHROMATOGRAPHY

Coupling methods between supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) and various chromatographic techniques have been reviewed. Developments using supercritical fluids in chromatography have been tremendous and a confirmation of the usefulness of this technique (called supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC)) has been evidenced by many scientists. Another field using supercritical fluids in analytical processes is SFE. Since SFE has many advantages compared to conventional solvent extraction method, such as faster and better controllability of conditions, no requirements for solvent waste and lower cost, popularity has been recently increasing. The most promising and favorable advantage of SFE is, however, the possibility to directly combine the extraction process to additional separation processes. The combination of SFE and various chromatographic techniques can be established more easily than the conventional solvent extraction technique. This review will mainly describe the potential of SFE, especially focusing on the coupling of SFE with chromatographic techniques. The review on SFC is also included since SFC is the major technique in which supercritical fluids are effectively used and no discussion concerning SFE is possible without knowledge about SFC.