This work aims to contribute to the theoretical and experimental research of supercritical processes for intensification and combination in one apparatus. Investigation is carried out to improve production technology of organic alginate aerogels. It is proposed within the investigation to carry out the solvent exchange stage, an important stage of organic aerogels production, under pressure in a carbon dioxide medium in the same apparatus used for supercritical drying. The phase behavior in the system “carbon dioxide–water–2-propanol”, which arises during such a solvent exchange stage, is studied theoretically. An experimental study of the process of step-by-step solvent exchange under pressure was carried out through multiphase and homogeneous regions of the phase diagram of such a system. As a result, new highly efficient technology for the production of organic aerogels was proposed, which can be implemented by combining the two main stages of the process.

A complex study of the production of sodium alginate aerogel particles by emulsion gelation and dripping methods followed by drying in supercritical carbon dioxide is conducted. The factors that...

We have prepared photocatalytic systems based on tetraphenylporphyrins (TPP) immobilized on calcium alginate solid gels in the conditions of thermal drying on air (xerogel), freeze drying in vacuum (cryogel) and supercritical drying in the supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO₂) medium (aerogel). As a test reaction to measure the prepared systems’ efficiency, we studied tryptophan photooxidation in the aqueous medium. We have demonstrated that the systems with aerogel as a carrier exhibited the highest photocatalytic efficiency. In that case, the rate constant for the test substrate (tryptophan) oxidation exceeds the corresponding rate constants of similar systems based on xerogel and cryogel by more than 5 times. Moreover, the aerogel-based photocatalytic systems demonstrated enhanced functional stability and a possibility of multiple use of such a catalyst in tryptophan oxidation. Based on the data of small-angle X-ray scattering and thermooxidative destruction, we have made a conclusion about the relationship between the high photocatalytic activity of aerogel-immobilized TPP and formation of a developed porous aerogel structure in the conditions of drying in the scCO₂ medium, which is stabilized due to formation of additional complex bonds of calcium ions with fragments of glycoside rings.