Overview

Everyone is becoming more environmentally conscious and therefore, chemical processes are being developed with their environmental burden in mind. This also means that more traditional chemical methods are being replaced with new innovations and this includes new solvents. Solvents are everywhere, but how necessary are they? They are used in most areas including synthetic chemistry, analytical chemistry, pharmaceutical production and processing, the food and flavour industry and the materials and coatings sectors. However, the principles of green chemistry guide us to use less of them, or to use safer, more environmentally friendly solvents if they are essential. Therefore, we should always ask ourselves, do we really need a solvent? Green chemistry, as a relatively new sub-discipline, is a rapidly growing field of research. Alternative solvents - including supercritical fluids and room temperature ionic liquids - form a significant portion of research in green chemistry. This is in part due to the hazards of many conventional solvents (e.g. toxicity and flammability) and the significant contribution that solvents make to the waste generated in many chemical processes. Solvents are important in analytical chemistry, product purification, extraction and separation technologies, and also in the modification of materials. Therefore, in order to make chemistry more sustainable in these fields, a knowledge of alternative, greener solvents is important. This book, which is part of a green chemistry series, uses examples that tie in with the 12 principles of green chemistry e.g. atom efficient reactions in benign solvents and processing of renewable chemicals/materials in green solvents. Readers get an overview of the many different kinds of solvents, written in such a way to make the book appropriate to newcomers to the field and prepare them for the 'green choices' available. The book also removes some of the mystique associated with 'alternative solvent' choices and includes information on solvents in different fields of chemistry such as analytical and materials chemistry in addition to catalysis and synthesis. The latest research developments, not covered elsewhere, are included such as switchable solvents and biosolvents. Also, some important areas that are often overlooked are described such as naturally sourced solvents (including ethanol and ethyl lactate) and liquid polymers (including poly(ethyleneglycol) and poly(dimethylsiloxane)). As well as these additional alternative solvents being included, the book takes a more general approach to solvents, not just focusing on the use of solvents in synthetic chemistry. Applications of solvents in areas such as analysis are overviewed in addition to the more widely recognised uses of alternative solvents in organic synthesis. Unfortunately, as the book shows, there is no universal green solvent and readers must ascertain their best options based on prior chemistry, cost, environmental benefits and other factors. It is important to try and minimize the number of solvent changes in a chemical process and therefore, the importance of solvents in product purification, extraction and separation technologies are highlighted. The book is aimed at newcomers to the field whether research students beginning investigations towards their thesis or industrial researchers curious to find out if an alternative solvent would be suitable in their work.

Full Product Details

9781849735957

Table of Contents

Reviews

...provides a very good introduction to potentially green alternative solvents for researchers new to the field. ...excellent starting point for those interested in working with green alternative solvents.

This book must be an essential purchase for anyone working in this exciting new field and for those wishing to acquire some knowledge of it. -- Edward R. Adlard Chromatographia (2014) 77:1249-1250 provides a very good introduction to potentially green alternative solvents for researchers new to the field excellent starting point for those interested in working with green alternative solvents Having been educated in an era before health and safety became Health and Safety and benzene was freely used as a degreaser, I approached this volume with a certain degree of scepticism. However, from a logical point of view one can only be wholeheartedly in favour of the aims of Green Chemistry, of which Green Solvents are an integral part. It is clear that the topic has become an extremely active one over the last 10 years with a dedicated journal (Green Chemistry, published by the RSC) and prizes awarded by governments to companies deemed to have made significant advances. The RSC has initiated a series of books on the subject and this one is the twentieth in the series. The first chapter is an introduction to the topic and explains on the first page that the use of solvents should be avoided if possible but, if necessary, green solvents should be used and should be of low toxicity, easy to recycle, inert and do not contaminate the product . This definition is expanded in the following pages to consider life cycle assessment which traces a solvent from its preparation/ source to its eventual final fate in a process or the environment. The principal author stresses that cost is an inevitable factor in the choice of a solvent and, whereas some solvents may have otherwise highly desirable properties they may be (at least currently) too expensive for general use. The chapter goes on to discuss the use of solvents in various fields-extraction, analytical and electrochemistry, organic chemistry and household products. This is an excellent introduction that sets the scene for the rest of the book. Chapter 2 discusses legislation on the use of solvents in various countries-the EU, the USA and Canada, China, Japan etc. which all seem to be in the process of harmonisation and greater stringency although one may have doubts about how rigorously the regulations are enforced. Chapter 3 describes reactions (inorganic and organic) that can take place in the absence of a solvent although in some of these one of the components of the reaction may also act as a solvent. Some reactions can be initiated merely by grinding the reactants together but this has limited applicability. The next seven chapters, the major part of the book, deal with various solvent systems starting with water and progressing through supercritical fluids (particularly super- critical C02), renewable solvents, ionic liquids, poly- and perfluorinated compounds, polyglycols and ending with tuneable solvent systems. All of these chapters are interesting although it is clear that, for a variety of reasons, many of these solvent systems are of limited applicability. For example, the polyfluorinated compounds (which seem to have acquired the strange name of fluorous solvents ) are so expensive that they are only likely to find use in high value, low volume applications such as the manufacture of electronic circuitry. Even water may not be so desirable in some circumstances and one can envisage some regions in the Middle East where gasoline might be more readily available than water and even parts of the UK are classed as having a semi-arid climate . Great stress is placed on biosources but here again there is already competition for the use of crops for food or biofuel. Suggestions to increase the use of terpenes and essential oils in Chapter 6 seem rather naive. On the positive side, it is clear that synthetic organic chemistry has come a long way in the last 50 years and is now much more environmentally friendly than it once was. However, it still has a long way to go before it can rival the ability of bacteria, plants and animals to manufacture the most exotic compounds such as artemisinin from little more than water, CO2 and sunlight. The role of enzymes receives coverage but should perhaps receive more prominence in this respect and surely must be the way in the future. In all of these comments, both favourable and critical, it should be noted that these are not necessarily the views of the authors since this book is essentially a literature search and an excellent one at that. The most common adjective in the book is recent ; the majority of the abundant references date from the last 10 years, many within the last 5 years and some as recently as 2012. The last chapter is the only personal one in the book and describes the senior author's experience in the teaching of the subject to chemistry students at her previous and current universities and as such it has much to commend it. This book must be an essential purchase for anyone working in this exciting new field and for those wishing to acquire some knowledge of it. -- Edward R. Adlard Chromatographia (2014) 77:1249-1250

This book must be an essential purchase for anyone working in this exciting new field and for those wishing to acquire some knowledge of it. -- Edward R. Adlard * Chromatographia (2014) 77:1249-1250 *

Author Information

Francesca M Kerton is Assistant Professor (Green Chemistry) in the Department of Chemistry, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. She gained her BSc in Chemistry with Environmental Science at the University of Kent and her PhD in Chemistry at the University of Sussex. For 2 years she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of British Columbia in Canada followed by a Lecturer, then Royal Society University Research Fellow, at the University of York, UK. She has contributed to many books and journal articles and her research interests are green chemistry including solvent replacement, catalysis and renewable feedstocks.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available