RECENT ADVANCES IN GREEN ORGANIC SYNTHESIS: SUSTAINABLE APPROACHES FOR MODERN CHEMISTRY

Abstract

Green Organic Synthesis has progressed from being just an additional environmental goal to a design principle for contemporary chemistry. The push to find ways to use fewer hazardous reagents, volatile organic solvents, less energy, less waste in the processes, and fewer fossil-based feeds has spurred the search for more selective, safer, and resource-efficient and scalable strategies for synthesis. This review critically discusses the recent advances on green organic synthesis focusing on sustainable reaction media, catalysis, visible-light photocatalysis, electrochemical synthesis, mechanochemistry, microwave and ultrasound activation, multicomponent and one-pot process, continuous-flow technology, renewable feedstocks, utilization of CO2, and new digital tools for process design. These methods are put into perspective with the 12 principles of green chemistry and their ability to be compared using green metrics like atom economy, E-factor, process mass intensity, reaction mass efficiency, solvent intensity, and life-cycle assessment. Applications in pharmaceutical synthesis, fine chemicals, heterocyclic chemistry, polymer and materials preparation and biomass valorization are also mentioned. While recent advances have shown that high-performance organic synthesis and environmental responsibility can be mutually supporting, there are still significant issues to address such as recovery of catalysts, end-of-life for solvents, scale-up reproducibility, substrate scope, accounting energy source, and standardization of sustainability reporting. However, further development will demand the incorporation of green chemistry with automation, computational reaction design, in-line analytics, circular carbon approaches and transparent techno-economic and life cycle analysis. In summary, green organic synthesis is becoming an integral part of a sustainable chemical enterprise and not a subdiscipline of organic chemistry.

Keywords: Green chemistry, organic synthesis, sustainable chemistry, catalysis, photo catalysis, electro synthesis, mechanochemistry