Chapter 3
Sonication in Neoteric Solvents.
A Further Look at Synthetic Plans
Abstract The use of neoteric solvents to substitute organic molecular solvents offers
new opportunities to develop more environmentally friendly synthetic organic chemistry to access to new molecules, materials or processes. Most known and investigated
neoteric solvents (NS) remain nowadays supercritical fluids (SCF), room temperature ionic liquids (RTILS) and deep eutectic solvents (DES). Each of them offers
several advantages over organic molecular solvents but also display inherent drawbacks. In order to tackle the latter moving forward to safer and faster processes,
ultrasound technology was recently coupled synergistically with these new media.
These three categories of NS are hereafter briefly introduced together with their own
remarkable properties permitting their use as alternative benign solvents. Insights of
striking developed applications with ultrasound will be then given in order to unleash
the promising potential of coupling ultrasound technology with neoteric solvents.
3.1 Introduction
In one and half century of history, the notoriety of organic synthetic chemistry
changed from beneficial to detrimental to humankind with strong environmental
and safety concerns in all compartments of our living environment. Green chemistry concept through 12 main principles incites R&D community to adopt more
sustainable ways to achieve chemical transformations with an enhanced green environmental fingerprint. The spirit is to tackle at source all harmful parameters among
toxicity, safety and environmental impact together with associated costs. One of
the core problems remains the use of common organic molecular solvents whose
are unsafe, toxic, flammable and volatile for most of them. Indeed, on the list of
damaging chemicals, solvents rank at the highest place. They are indeed the main
constituents of a chemical reaction, leading to huge amounts of wastes to be treated
off/disposed, and they are also largely responsible for VOCs worldwide emissions.
Water may appear as the most natural alternative being itself the most environmentally possible benign solvent associated with cheapness and availability. However,
its poor solubility or on the contrary its exacerbated reactivity with some organic
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018
J.-M. Lévêque et al., Organic Sonochemistry, Ultrasound and Sonochemistry,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98554-1_3
41
Sonication in Neoteric Solvents.
A Further Look at Synthetic Plans
Abstract The use of neoteric solvents to substitute organic molecular solvents offers
new opportunities to develop more environmentally friendly synthetic organic chemistry to access to new molecules, materials or processes. Most known and investigated
neoteric solvents (NS) remain nowadays supercritical fluids (SCF), room temperature ionic liquids (RTILS) and deep eutectic solvents (DES). Each of them offers
several advantages over organic molecular solvents but also display inherent drawbacks. In order to tackle the latter moving forward to safer and faster processes,
ultrasound technology was recently coupled synergistically with these new media.
These three categories of NS are hereafter briefly introduced together with their own
remarkable properties permitting their use as alternative benign solvents. Insights of
striking developed applications with ultrasound will be then given in order to unleash
the promising potential of coupling ultrasound technology with neoteric solvents.
3.1 Introduction
In one and half century of history, the notoriety of organic synthetic chemistry
changed from beneficial to detrimental to humankind with strong environmental
and safety concerns in all compartments of our living environment. Green chemistry concept through 12 main principles incites R&D community to adopt more
sustainable ways to achieve chemical transformations with an enhanced green environmental fingerprint. The spirit is to tackle at source all harmful parameters among
toxicity, safety and environmental impact together with associated costs. One of
the core problems remains the use of common organic molecular solvents whose
are unsafe, toxic, flammable and volatile for most of them. Indeed, on the list of
damaging chemicals, solvents rank at the highest place. They are indeed the main
constituents of a chemical reaction, leading to huge amounts of wastes to be treated
off/disposed, and they are also largely responsible for VOCs worldwide emissions.
Water may appear as the most natural alternative being itself the most environmentally possible benign solvent associated with cheapness and availability. However,
its poor solubility or on the contrary its exacerbated reactivity with some organic
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018
J.-M. Lévêque et al., Organic Sonochemistry, Ultrasound and Sonochemistry,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98554-1_3
41