Patent ID: 7276190

Claim:
A process for producing micro and/or nano particles of solids with a mean diameter ranging between 0.01 and 100 micrometers, the process comprising the steps of: solubilizing a solid in a liquid solvent or a mixture of liquid solvents, the liquid solvent or the mixture of liquid solvents having very low or zero solubility in carbon dioxide under conditions with temperature between 30 and 100° C. and pressure between 50 and 240 bar; solubilizing a dense carbon dioxide in the liquid solvent or the mixture of liquid solvents, the dense carbon dioxide being compressed, liquid or supercritical, wherein solubilization takes place in a saturation chamber loaded with high surface packings at process conditions with temperature between 30 and 100° C. and pressure between 50 and 240 bar; injecting a thus obtained solution through a thin wall injector into a precipitation vessel operated at pressures near atmospheric pressure; and recovering produced powders.