Introduction

Green Chemistry Jemma Vickery jv2237@bris.ac.uk

Introduction

What is Green Chemistry?

Green chemistry involves the development of chemical products and synthetic procedures, which are environmentally friendly and have reduced health risks with the search for more efficient methods to do chemistry. Its roots stem back ten years from a simple idea to a prominent concept which permeates all areas of modern chemistry.

Why do we need Green Chemistry?

Chemistry is undeniably a very prominent part of our daily lives. Food and drink has been made safe to consume, the development of cosmetics has enabled us to beautify and admire our appearances and the whole area of pharmaceuticals has allowed the development and synthesis of new cures for illnesses and diseases, all as a result of chemistry. However, additional chemical developments also bring new environmental problems and harmful unexpected side effects, which result in the need for ‘greener’ chemical products.

A famous example is the pesticide DDT, which was effective in controlling insect pests that carried deadly diseases but also were later found to have implications on the bald eagle population and was also suspected to be a potential carcinogenic.

Green chemistry looks at pollution prevention on the molecular scale and is an extremely important area of Chemistry due to the importance of Chemistry in our world today and the implications it can how on our environment.

What is the Green Chemistry Program?

The Green Chemistry program supports the invention of more environmentally friendly chemical processes which reduce or even eliminate the generation of hazardous substances. This program works very closely with the twelve principles of Green Chemistry as shown below:

1. Prevention

2. Atom Economy

3. Less Hazardous

4. Designing Safer Chemicals

5. Safer Solvents and Auxiliaries

6. Design for Energy Efficiency

7. Use of Renewable Feedstocks

8. Reduce Derivatives

9. Catalysis

10. Design for Degradation

11. Real-time analysis for Pollution Prevention

12. Inherently Safer Chemistry for Accident Prevention

See references (1, 2, 3)