Switch to safer and renewable solvents

Category: Chemical Sciences

Level: Silver

Author: Freese T., Hermuth-Kleinschmidt K.

The Impact: <p>Minimize emissions and mitigate hazards to people and the natural environment.</p>

Details

Where feasible, hazardous or petroleum-based solvents should be replaced with renewable and less toxic alternatives. Solvent selection guides can help researchers identify suitable alternatives, thereby reducing environmental and health impacts. Where possible, apply solvent-free reactions. 

References

• GSK (2010): Expanding GSK's solvent selection guide – embedding sustainability into solvent selection starting at medicinal chemistry ,
• Tools and techniques for solvent selection: green solvent selection guides ,
• Pfizer (2008): Green chemistry tools to influence a medicinal chemistry and research chemistry based organisation ,
• Sanofi (2013): Sanofi’s Solvent Selection Guide: A Step Toward More Sustainable Processes ,
• AstraZeneca (2016): Toward a More Holistic Framework for Solvent Selection ,
• A guidebook for sustainability in laboratories ,
• Green Chromatography for Environmental Chemical Analysis ,
• A survey of solvent selection guides ,
• CHEM21 selection guide of classical- and less classical-solvents ,
• NMR Chemical Shifts of Emerging Green Solvents, Acids, and Bases for Facile Trace Impurity Analysis ,
• Ionic liquids as potentially hazardous pollutants

Resources

• ACS Solvent Tool ,
• TURI Database of Safer Solvents ,
• DOZN Quantitative Green Chemistry Evaluator ,
• Beyond Benign ,
• NMR Chemical Shifts of Emerging Green Solvents and Classical Solvents