Themed collection 2018 Green Chemistry Hot Articles

The ACS Green Chemistry Institute® Pharmaceutical Roundtable has assembled an updated list of key research areas to highlight transformations and reaction media where more sustainable technologies would be most impactful.

Chemists, engineers, scientists, lend us your ears… Carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) is among the largest challenges on the horizon and we need your help.

Chemical substances and processes that play a fundamental role in the 12 principles of Green Chemistry representing conservative evolution and/or industrial metabolism were reviewed.

A broad overview of the achievements and emerging areas in the field of Green Chemistry.

Carboxylic acids have gained more and more importance as versatile and renewable starting materials for the formation of platform molecules or high-value chemicals.

The worldwide urge to embrace a sustainable and bio-compatible chemistry has led industry and academia to develop chlorine-free methodologies focused on the use of CO₂-based compounds, such as dimethyl carbonate, as feedstocks, promoters and reaction media.

Miniaturized and automated nanomole synthesis using acoustic dispensing technology dramatically accelerated the production of diverse libraries of three small molecule scaffolds.

Effective and selective transformation of diaryl ethers to value-added ketones.

A study on the translation of a solid-state fluorination reaction from a mechanochemical mixer-mill to a continuous twin-screw extruder is discussed herein.

The first example of the electrochemical oxysulfuration reaction of alkenes with thiols and nucleophilic oxygen sources has been reported.

The gram-scale mechanochemical preparation of marketed drugs Nitrofurantoin and Dantrolene is herein reported.

Co(CO₃)_0.5(OH)·0.11H₂O: a new property for highly selective electroreduction of CO₂ to CH₃OH.

A simple and inexpensive reaction control system mitigates the impact of solar irradiance fluctuations on the conversion of a sunlight-powered photochemical reaction, affording constant product quality.

The present work shows a new one-stage mechanochemical method for the direct synthesis of alkoxysilanes.

A user and environmentally friendly synthesis of the widely used N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) precursors was realized using mechanochemistry.

A simple and eco-friendly strategy for the synthesis of E-ortho-hydroxystilbenes from two kinds of α,β-unsaturated aromatic lactones is described.

A facile, practical and recyclable Cu–N–C composite catalyst with good catalytic activity for both homo- & cross-coupling of terminal alkynes.

We report the first Ni(cod)₂/bipyr.-catalyzed alcoholysis of N-acyloxazolidinones to deliver esters.

An efficient Rh-catalyzed intermolecular C(sp³)–H amination in a purely aqueous system is developed for the first time.

Difluoromethylated esters, malonates and amino acids (including the drug eflornithine) are obtained by a gas–liquid continuous flow protocol employing the abundant waste product fluoroform as an atom-efficient reagent.

The enigma of the oxidation–reduction strategy for lignin valorization was disclosed over heterogenous catalysts and was compared with model compound studies.

Selective formylation and methylation of amines using low pressure CO₂ as a carbon source; mechanistic studies, time course and reaction scope.

Transaminases remain one of the most promising biocatalysts for use in chiral amine synthesis. Here, the identification, cloning and screening of novel transaminases from a drain metagenome is described, with some enzymes exhibiting outstanding properties such as 50% DMSO solvent tolerance.

A versatile, tunable and robust continuous flow procedure for the upgrading of erythritol toward important industrial building blocks.

Here, we present a green route to glutaric acid, a chemical of recognized industrial value, using a tailor-made cell factory.

Ion exchange is determined by the interaction energy and impacts process performance by change of physicochemical properties and reactivity.

Scalable, sustainable, and safe thin-layer membrane reactor can potentially accelerate the adoption of heterogeneous and homogenous catalytic gas–liquid reactions in the pharmaceutical and fine chemical industries.

The oxidation of HMF is performed using highly active heterogeneous gold- and, for the first time, silver-based catalysts.

Highly robust engineered protein matrices derived from bacteria were used to isolate rare earth elements from mixtures of metals. The filters were re-used over multiple cycles and the bound REE were readily recovered.

Transition-metal complexes and purified ketoreductases work together in eutectic mixtures for the synthesis of enantiopure secondary alcohols.

Various trihalide ionic liquids were prepared and used as non-volatile solvent to oxidatively dissolve metals.

Bio-based chemicals have gained more widespread attention than bio-fuels because of the decline in crude oil prices.

A mild and environmentally friendly carbene-catalyzed aerobic oxidation of isoquinolinium salts was successfully realized.

An enhanced photoreforming of biomass was achieved by loading a graphitic carbon layer on TiO₂/NiO_x nanoparticles.

Preparation of polymer monoliths from the coagulation of particles, synthesized by soap-free emulsion polymerisation, using water as the only solvent.

The selective transformation of furfural to 1,4-pentanediol has been achieved with up to 90% yield in a CO₂/H₂/H₂O system over Ru catalytic species supported on a mesoporous carbon.

An eco-compatible two-step synthesis for the production of new hydrotropes with attractive salt tolerance and solubilizing properties.

Synthetic procedure of three-dimensional porous graphene-like sheets via low-temperature graphitization.

Switchable polarity solvents allowed for the first time the electrochemical reduction of captured CO₂ for an efficient production of syngas.

Simple and low-toxic Lewis pairs were introduced for ring-opening alternating copolymerization of anhydrides and epoxides to prepare diversified polyesters.

An interfacial reaction between the UV irradiated water phase (H˙ provides) and the electron-discharged nitrogen-gas phase (N atom provides) produces ammonia efficiently.

A strategy is presented to control the etherification site in sugar alcohols via ketalization of the terminal vicinal-diol group with a ketone.

An energy saving method of freeze crystallization for recycling ionic liquids was investigated in a cellulose spinning process.

B(C₆F₅)₃-Catalyzed tandem cyclization/hydrosilylation for the step-economical construction of 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinoxalines from readily available starting materials has been developed.

Herein we report the first example of a generally useful organic reaction, namely the copper-catalysed azide–alkyne cycloaddition, performed in a Polarclean/water mixture as a reaction medium.

Various analytical techniques and DFT calculations have been applied in studying base-catalysed lignin degradation in dimethyl carbonate.

An IL-in-oil Pickering emulsion prepared with Rh-sulfo-xantphos as the catalyst and dendritic mesoporous silica nanospheres as the stabilizer could efficiently catalyze the hydroformylation of 1-dodecene to afford TOF as high as 413 h⁻¹.

High performance man-made cellulosic fibres from recycled newsprint.

Regenerable hydrotalcite-derived Mg–Al oxide is an effective heterogeneous base to avoid waste formation and enable halogen recycling in the glycerol-to-epichlorohydrin process.