Solubility of stearic acid in supercritical CO_2-acetonitrile mixtures

The solubility of stearic acid in supercritical CO2 with acetonitrile (CH3CN) cosolvent was measured at 318.15 K in the pressure range from 9.5 to 16.5 MPa, and the cosolvent concentration ranges from 0. 0 to 5.5 mol% . The solubility increases with acetonitrile concentration and pressure, and it also increases with the apparent density of CO2 d1(moles of CO2 in per liter of fluid) at higher cosolvent concentrations. At lower d1, however, the solubility of the acid at lower acetonitrile concentrations is lower than that in pure CO2 provided that d1 is fixed, which is discussed qualitatively based on the clustering of the components in the system.