Review articles – Page 2 – Green Chemistry Blog

Archive for the ‘Review articles’ Category

Perspective: How do the fine chemical, pharmaceutical, and related industries approach green chemistry and sustainability?

09 Jan 2012

In this Perspective article, William Watson, Scientific Update LLP, UK, looks at the approach of companies within the chemical, pharmaceutical and related industries to green chemistry and sustainability, and examines how much variation exists from company to company.

The study approached several companies from across the sector and included 11 ‘big pharma’ companies, 6 ‘other pharma’ companies and 4 non-phrama companies who agreed to take part in the survey. The survey itself looked at green chemistry and sustainability policies and policy implementation, process metrics, green chemistry and technologies and how the application of the green chemistry principles changes throughout the various stages of development.

The study highlights that the overall picture across the sector is very varied, with a few companies clearly leading the field and some slower to introduce or highlight green issues than others. However, all companies try to use green solvents where possible and avoid using solvents like dichloromethane.

This article is now free to access until the 3rd February 2012! Click the link below to find out more…

How do the fine chemical, pharmaceutical, and related industries approach green chemistry and sustainability?, William J. W. Watson, Green Chem., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C1GC15904F

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Critical review: The photoreaction of TiO2 and Au/TiO2 single crystal and powder surfaces with organic adsorbates. Emphasis on hydrogen production from renewables

14 Dec 2011

In this critical review, Karen Connelly and Hicham Idriss from the University of Aberdeen, UK and SABIC T&I, Saudi Aradia, review the fundamental aspects behind the reactivity of TiO₂ surfaces.

The authors look at both rutile-TiO₂and a gold/TiO₂system and the various factors that affect their reactivity, before studying the photoreaction of ethanol in more detail. Here, they show that the gold/TiO₂system shows about two orders of magnitude high activity that rutile-TiO₂and discuss the mechanisms of hydrogen production. However, the authors highlight that further work is still needed in this field as only one third of the hydrogen is extracted from the ethanol. They highlight that the challenge will be in designing photocatalysts for hydrogen production that are capable of breaking carbon-carbon bonds under ambient conditions.

This article is free to access until the 11th January 2012! Click the link below to read more…

The photoreaction of TiO₂and Au/TiO₂single crystal and powder surfaces with organic adsorbates. Emphasis on hydrogen production from renewables, Karen A. Connelly and Hicham Idriss, Green Chem., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C1GC15992E

You may also be interested in this article, also free until the 11th January 2012:

Sustainable hydrogen production by the application of ambient temperature photocatalysis, Michael Bowker, Green Chem., 2011, 13, 2235-2246

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Continuous flow reactors: a perspective

17 Nov 2011

In this Tutorial Review, Charlotte Wiles of Chemtrix BV and Paul Watts of the University of Hull, look at the developments made in the application of continuous flow reactors for sustainable chemical research and production.

The review looks at the 12 principles of green chemistry, as outlined by Paul Anastas et al.¹and identifies which of these principles have the potential to benefit from flow reactor technology and discuss relevant examples. The authors also focus on production-scale processes, highlighting that reactor safety is key here and being able to easily scale-up bench processes to production scales. However, there are still challenges facing flow reactor technology and areas which still require further development, such as the manipulation of slurries and the recovery of solvents and catalysts.

1. P. T. Anastas and M. M. Kirchhoff, Acc. Chem. Res., 2002, 35, 686–694.

This article is free to access until the 15th December 2011! Click the link below to read more…

Continuous flow reactors: a perspective, Charlotte Wiles and Paul Watts, Green Chem., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C1GC16022B

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Critical review: Industrial biotechnology – The future of green chemistry?

21 Oct 2011

In this Critical Review, Udo Kragl and co-workers from the University of Rostock, Germany, summarize and evaluate the advantages, disadvantages and potential uses of biocatalysis to perform green chemistry. The work also considers how efficient such production methods are and how important biotechnology is for future greener industrial chemistry.

The review will look at and evaluate representative examples of industrial chemistry where state of the art enzymes and microorganisms are used, and compare several biocatalytic processes to their chemical alternatives. Throughout the article, the authors highlight that continuous improvement is required in order to overcome existing limitations and turn biotechnological processes into standard tools in the chemical industry (look out for the ‘Critical remark’ boxes which illustrate these points). Future trends for the biocatalytic reduction of amides and the asymmetric hydrogenation of olefins are also discussed.

To read more, please click on the link below:

Industrial biotechnology—the future of green chemistry? Stefanie Wenda, Sabine Illner, Annett Mell and Udo Kragl, Green Chem., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1GC15579B

This article is free to access until the 17th November 2011!

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Enzymatic reductions for chemists

15 Jul 2011

Biocatalysis has undergone dramatic improvements in recent years, becoming an alternative method to chemocatalysis. Due to their inherent chirality, enzymes are able to selectively catalyse reactions giving the products with high enantioselectivity.

Reduction reactions with enzymes has developed rapidly in the past few years. Previously, biocatalytic reductions have been challenging due to the dependency of the enzyme on a co-factor, narrow substrate range and restrictions to reactions in aqueous media. However, the majority of these challenges have now been, or are about to be, solved.

In this review article, Hollmann and co-workers give an overview of the recent developments in biocatalytic reduction, with a critical view on the green aspects. To read more, please read the full article, which is free until 12 August, by clicking the link below.

Enzymatic reductions for the chemist, Frank Hollmann, Isabel W. C. E. Arends and Dirk Holtmann, Green Chem., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1GC15424A

You may also be interested in the following review, free until 12 August:

Enzyme-mediated oxidations for the chemist, Frank Hollmann, Isabel W. C. E. Arends, Katja Buehler, Anett Schallmey and Bruno Bühler, Green Chem., 2011, 13, 226-265

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Green Chemistry reviews some of the challenges

15 Mar 2011

Green Chemistry has recently published a series of critical reviews that have been highly downloaded. These reviews aim to cover the trends and progress in the fields and also set the scene for cutting-edge research and innovations for a greener and sustainable future. More importantly the reviews highlight the challenges that need to be urgently addressed in each of those research areas.

Use of carbon dioxide in chemical syntheses via a lactone intermediate
A. Behr and G. Henze
Green Chem., 2011, 13, 25-39
DOI: 10.1039/C0GC00394H

Converting carbohydrates to bulk chemicals and fine chemicals over heterogeneous catalysts
Maria J. Climent, Avelino Corma and Sara Iborra
Green Chem., 2011, 13, 520-540
DOI: 10.1039/C0GC00639D

Processing of metals and metal oxides using ionic liquids
Andrew P. Abbott, Gero Frisch, Jennifer Hartley and Karl S. Ryder
Green Chem., 2011, 13, 471-481
DOI: 10.1039/C0GC00716A

Viable methodologies for the synthesis of high-quality nanostructures
Jonathan M. Patete, Xiaohui Peng, Christopher Koenigsmann, Yan Xu, Barbara Karn and Stanislaus S. Wong
Green Chem., 2011, 13, 482-519
DOI: 10.1039/C0GC00516A

Enzyme-mediated oxidations for the chemist
Frank Hollmann, Isabel W. C. E. Arends, Katja Buehler, Anett Schallmey and Bruno Bühler
Green Chem., 2011, 13, 226-265
DOI: 10.1039/C0GC00595A

5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) as a building block platform: Biological properties, synthesis and synthetic applications
Andreia A. Rosatella, Svilen P. Simeonov, Raquel F. M. Frade and Carlos A. M. Afonso
Green Chem., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0GC00401D

Greener solvents for ruthenium and palladium-catalysed aromatic C–H bond functionalisation
Cedric Fischmeister and Henri Doucet
Green Chem., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0GC00885K

The irruption of polymers from renewable resources on the scene of macromolecular science and technology
Alessandro Gandini
Green Chem., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0GC00789G

You may also be interested in some of the review articles published in 2010:

Technology development for the production of biobased products from biorefinery carbohydrates—the US Department of Energy’s “Top 10” revisited
Joseph J. Bozell and Gene R. Petersen
Green Chem., 2010, 12, 539-554
DOI: 10.1039/B922014C

Catalytic conversion of biomass to biofuels
David Martin Alonso, Jesse Q. Bond and James A. Dumesic
Green Chem., 2010, 12, 1493-1513
DOI: 10.1039/C004654J

Vegetable oil-based polymeric materials: synthesis, properties, and applications
Ying Xia and Richard C. Larock
Green Chem., 2010, 12, 1893-1909
DOI: 10.1039/C0GC00264J

Glycerol as a sustainable solvent for green chemistry
Yanlong Gu and François Jérôme
Green Chem., 2010, 12, 1127-1138
DOI: 10.1039/C001628D

Synthesis of cyclic carbonates from epoxides and CO2
Michael North, Riccardo Pasquale and Carl Young
Green Chem., 2010, 12, 1514-1539
DOI: 10.1039/C0GC00065E

Enzymes in neoteric solvents: From one-phase to multiphase systems
Pedro Lozano
Green Chem., 2010, 12, 555-569
DOI: 10.1039/B919088K

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Are microwave reactions really green?

03 Mar 2011

Jonathan Moseley and Oliver Kappe provide some pertinent answers to the question: “Why should microwave chemistry be green?”.

There has been over 5000 microwave-assisted syntheses reported in the last 25 years and most of the scientific reports assume that microwave reactions are green, sustainable, environmentally friendly (“ecofriendly”), benign etc. A lot of the times, authors do not provide a clear rationalization and justification why the respective protocols are green because most researchers assume that microwave heating is more energy efficient than classical heating methods.

Here, Moseley and Kappe critically assess the energy efficiency of microwave-assisted transformations in the context of scaling-up this technology to production quantities, taking into account the twelve principles of green chemistry, with a focus on the 6th principle: design for energy efficiency.

“Microwave heating process performed in laboratory-scale single-mode microwave reactors is appallingly energy inefficient,” claim Moseley and Kappe.

However, they agree that when moving from the lab scale to the kilogram scale, microwave technology is more efficient that conventional heating processes.

The full perspective can be freely downloaded until the 3rd April 2011.

A critical assessment of the greenness and energy efficiency of microwave-assisted organic synthesis
Jonathan D. Moseley and C. Oliver Kappe
Green Chem., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0GC00823K, Perspective

This perspective has also been highlighted in Chemistry World. It can be read here:

Microwave chemistry – green or not?

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Processing of metals and metal oxides using ionic liquids – a review

16 Feb 2011

Andrew Abbott and co-workers at the University of Leicester have reviewed the use of ionic liquids for the processing of metals and metal oxides.

Processing of metals and metal oxides using ionic liquids

The processing and reprocessing of metals is possibly one of the largest energy consumers and generators of waste in the industry sector. Typically, metal extract and recovery (also known as hydrometallurgy) in solution is done in melts or very basic or acidic solutions, as metal oxides are insoluble in most molecular solvents. However, these methods have disadvantages due to their high energy demands, the amount of waste generated, and the numerous steps involved.

Ionic liquids, salts which are liquid below 100 °C, possess useful physical properties which allow them to be applied to many different reactions and processes. In this case, some ionic liquids have demonstrated much higher solubilities for metal salts than most organic solvents. Potential advantages of using ionic liquids in this field include the ability to simplify processing techniques and avoid the formation of oxide and hydroxide products during processing.

In this review Abbott and co-workers critically review the potential efficacy of ionic liquids in metal and metal oxide processing over existing methods.

This article is freely available until the 16 March 2011:

Processing of metals and metal oxides using ionic liquids, Andrew P. Abbott, Gero Frisch, Jennifer Hartley and Karl S. Ryder, Green Chem., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C0GC00716A.

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Green Chemistry Blog

Archive for the ‘Review articles’ Category

Perspective: How do the fine chemical, pharmaceutical, and related industries approach green chemistry and sustainability?

Critical review: The photoreaction of TiO2 and Au/TiO2 single crystal and powder surfaces with organic adsorbates. Emphasis on hydrogen production from renewables

Continuous flow reactors: a perspective

Critical review: Industrial biotechnology – The future of green chemistry?

Enzymatic reductions for chemists

Green Chemistry reviews some of the challenges

Are microwave reactions really green?

Processing of metals and metal oxides using ionic liquids – a review

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