Solvents and sustainable chemistry

Abstract

Solvents are widely recognized to be of great environmental concern. The reduction of their use is one of the most important aims of green chemistry. In addition to this, the appropriate selection of solvent for a process can greatly improve the sustainability of a chemical production process. There has also been extensive research into the application of so-called green solvents, such as ionic liquids and supercritical fluids. However, most examples of solvent technologies that give improved sustainability come from the application of well-established solvents. It is also apparent that the successful implementation of environmentally sustainable processes must be accompanied by improvements in commercial performance.

Review of 12 Principles of Green Chemistry in Practice

“…This process also results in the removal of dichloromethane (CH 2 Cl 2 ) as a solvent. The total reaction consists of ethylene oxide (CH 2 ) 20, CO 2 and bisphenol-A (C 15 H 16 O 2 ) to give polycarbamate and ethylene glycol C 2 H 6 O 2 [13]. …”

A New Mn-Salen Micellar Nanoreactor for Enantioselective Epoxidation of Alkenes in Water

“…Then, solvent was removed under reduced pressure and salen 1 (yield 67%) was purified by neutral alumina column (CH2Cl2 containing 5% of CH3OH). 1 73, 166.36, 139.30, 130.00, 129.81, 129.73, 129.62, 128.38, 127.96, 127.63, 79.99, 73.60, 72.69, 70.50, 63.50, 54.92, 45.87, 31.91, 29.67, 29.29, 26.21, 22.68, 15.49, 14.11, 8.60 For C59H72IMnN3O6: C,64.36;H,6.59;N,3.82. Found: C,64.30 H,6.51;N,3.75.…”

“…Reaction was stirred at room temperature for 24 h. Then, solvent was removed under reduced pressure, the crude product was washed with few mL of water to remove starting reagent 6 and filtered obtaining compound 7 (yield 98%). 1 138.65,133.68,129.185,128.98,128.54,128.48,128.02,126.74,68.29,60.73,57.19,36.55,32.55,31.29,29.82,29.01,28.70,25.71,25.51,22.10, [M] + . Anal.…”

“…In fact, organic solvents are commonly used in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries as reaction media but, for toxicological and environmental pollution reasons [1], manufacturers aspire to reduce the number and amount of solvents applied in a drug or chemical production. However, the use of water as solvent for organic synthesis is limited by the low solubility of organic compounds and the facile decomposition of many active species in water.…”

Assessment of Sustainability Indicators for Biodiesel Production

“…It was initially proposed to avoid relying only on the yield of a product to measure its greenness. Unfortunately, the usefulness of AE is limited since it only considers the stoichiometry of the reaction and does not take into account the yield of the desired product [20]. The ideal atom economy for a chemical transformation is taken as the process where all reactant atoms are found in the desired product [19].…”