| abstract |
Contaminant material is removed from a contaminated article by contacting the contaminated article with a reactive cleaning fluid comprising water and an oxidant material at a temperature at or above the critical temperature of the reactive cleaning fluid and a pressure at or above the critical pressure of the reactive cleaning fluid. At least a portion of the contaminant material is oxidized to yield a cleaned article and a product mixture comprising unreacted reactive cleaning fluid and removed contaminant material, and the product mixture is then separated from the cleaned article. Suitable oxidant materials include oxygen, ozone, hydrogen peroxide, chlorine, nitric oxide, nitrous oxide, nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen trifluoride, fluorine, and chlorine trifluoride. |