Chemistry Trends Blog #11 — Green Chemistry : Reducing the use of hazardous chemicals

As with most sciences, Chemistry is a fast moving field so keeping up to date with the current trends is often difficult. In this blog series, we will be discussing the hot topics and trends in various subfields of Chemistry, from Heterogeneous Catalysts to Graphene. The next blog in is about what is trending in Green Chemistry.

A green forest taken by Harald Hoyer from Schwerin, Germany Wikipedia Commons.

Green Chemistry or Sustainable chemistry is the study and also philosophy of chemical research that aims to reduce the generation and use of hazardous substances. The principles of green chemistry were started by Paul Anastas and John Warner’s book in 1998 “Green chemistry: theory and practice.” [1 ,2] Since then the philosophy and field has grown due to concerns about climate change and awareness of the dangers of chemical waste. The Chemistry Nobel Prize in 2005 [3] made specific reference to and acknowledged the winners’ drive towards Green Chemistry. The current three areas of research are the reduction of solvents, green catalysis, and fossil fuel alternatives.

Recent Trends

Reducing Solvents

One of the major focuses of Green chemistry is reducing the use of organic solvents, especially ones that are environmentally hazardous. As a large portion of modern chemistry is done in large solvent mixing chambers, so this transition towards reduced solvent use can reduce the amount of waste by millions of tons per year. This has lead towards the current interest in Dry Media Reactions [4, 5, 6], Neat Synthesis [7, 8, 9] , and Aqua-based [10, 11] reactions.

Sparrho Channel on Reducing Solvents

Green Catalysis

As with many other aspects of chemistry, the use of catalysis is a key area of research. Almost all industrial processes make use of catalysts one way or another. Catalysts allow for a higher yield and often at lower temperatures, which allows the reduction in by-products and lowered amount of energy required [12]. For example, Ni-nanoparticles were recently developed to catalyse aldehydes [13] or copper-iron nanoparticles for azide-alkyne reactions [14].

Sparrho Channel on Green Catalysis

Fossil Fuel Alternatives

Although not really a philosophy of green chemistry, the reduction in fossil fuel usage is a direct method of reducing hazardous chemicals so it is often a topic that arises in green chemistry. This is almost a sub-field in it’s own as the pursuit of Fossil fuel alternatives such as biofuels [15 ,16], alcohol fuels [17], hydrogen [18], and natural gas [19] vehicles. The pursuit of reduced carbon emissions (especially carbon neutral or negative methods) is a growing aspect of green chemistry.

Sparrho Channel on Fossil Fuel Alternatives

Conclusion

As the world awakens to the importance of environmentalism, the drive towards green chemistry is a natural by-product. the recent shifts in government policy and science research move towards using less hazardous compounds has been driving chemistry towards greener chemistry, thus the issues of solvent reduction, cleaner catalysis, and fossil fuel alternatives arises.

Originally published at blog.sparrho.com.