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As we all know water is a great solvent in it's liquid form relative to other substances. I wonder however how it performs as a gas relative to other stuff.

Does anyone know how well steam carries compounds with it compared to other gases at the same temperature and pressure?

Hans
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    Arguably, no gas is a good solvent. – Ivan Neretin Sep 23 '20 at 20:26
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    Or they are all perfect, depending on what on Earth you mean! – Mithoron Sep 23 '20 at 20:34
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    Supercritical water dissolves for a lot of things you usually think are perfectly insoluble, like many inorganic solids. – Karl Sep 23 '20 at 20:39
  • Are all gases equal in their ability to carry with them lower volatility matter at a given temperature? – Hans Sep 24 '20 at 19:42
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    @Hans, think about gas chromatography, if you are familiar with it. Does the retention time change if you change gases, say, nitrogen to helium or hydrogen? No, it does not. – AChem Sep 24 '20 at 20:09

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It depends on how a solvent is defined. Regardless of semantics, supercritical steam 217.75 atm, 373.946 °C is a very good solvent. It will dissolve fats, hydrocarbons or plastics. It also becomes very corrosive to metals.

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AChem
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    Thing is, you're talking about liquid-like supercritical H2O, which I wouldn't call steam. – Mithoron Sep 23 '20 at 22:37
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    Supercritical "fluid" is neither a typical gas nor liquid. It does not matter whether you accept the term supercritical steam or not, I would rather worry if the scientific community accepts it or not. "Supercritical steam" brings up at least 9700 results in Google Scholar. – AChem Sep 24 '20 at 00:21
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    Perhaps read my comment again and check out on supercritical fluids, before responding... – Mithoron Sep 24 '20 at 00:54
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    Mithoron, Please bring some positivity in your tone. Instead of criticizing answers mainly on semantics or trivial issues and downvoting almost every other question, why don't you write a separate answer if you have a better explanation. Perhaps in a better way, instead of cursing the darkness, why not light a lamp? SE Chem is a volunteering Q&A site. Make this a productive place. BTW, what is your area of specialization? – AChem Sep 24 '20 at 01:15
  • https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/22185/does-the-density-of-a-liquid-and-gas-phase-of-a-substancenitrogen-or-water-con https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/122239/is-oxygen-above-the-critical-point-always-supercritical-fluid-would-it-still-ap – Mithoron Sep 24 '20 at 15:09