Green Chemistry Metrics, A Review

Abstract

Attending both the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014) and the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, this review is presented, bearing in mind that green chemistry is essential to contribute to sustainability. This work has compiled all the information relating to green chemistry metrics, so that stakeholders can select an appropriate model, under the Green Chemistry Protocol, to evaluate how much green is a process. The review was organized considering the following convenient sections: the mass valuation, the recognition of the human health and environmental impact, metrics using computational programs (software and spreadsheets), and finally global metrics. This review was developed by consulting the principal databases, since the appearance of the first green chemistry textbook in 1998. A massive number of references were attained involving the keywords proposed below, with six languages observed, highlighted by the English language. It is important to emphasize that the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry are conceptual and offer little quantitative information. In addition, almost all the reported metric green propositions do not consider the 12 principles and few papers offer how to obtain an appropriate evaluation about the greenness of a research. In this sense, it is convenient to note that only in the Spanish literature are there two metrics that consider all the principles. Finally, to our knowledge, and after a deep search in the literature, it is the first review that covers the different features of green chemistry: mass, environment/human health. and in some cases, the use of computational programs.

What does it mean that “something is green”? The fundamentals of a Unified Greenness Theory

“…27,57 A thorough description of these and other tools used to assess greenness of synthetic and analytical methods and processes is available in many review articles. [54][55][56][57][58] The interested reader is referred to them.…”

Synthesis of Highly Substituted 3-Acylpyrroles by a Four-Component Sonogashira Alkynylation–Amine Addition–Nitroalkene Michael Addition–Cyclocondensation

“…Therefore, catalytic processes, as a viable aspect of green chemistry, as well as one-pot syntheses, have become increasingly important. 14 Multicomponent syntheses of pyrroles have become a topic of high significance in exploring the vastness of organic and organometallic reactivity to get access to these important heterocycles in a diversity-oriented fashion. 15 In particular, multicomponent syntheses of heterocycles by transition-metal catalysis 16 have strongly developed the field in the past two decades, and our group has reported several one-pot syntheses of pyrroles too.…”

Recent advances in radical polymerization of bio-based monomers in aqueous dispersed media

“…It is expressed in % based on the total mass of carbon in the reactants; the higher the C-efficiency, the better. 21 Reaction mass efficiency (% RME) measures the efficiency with which the reactant mass ends up in the desired product. 22 It is defined as the mass of isolated product divided by the total mass of the reactants and is expressed in %; the higher the % RME, the better.…”