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Green and Sustainable Solvents

The use of many traditional organic solvents is beginning to be restricted due to their toxicity and environmental impact, with increased legislative measures controlling their application. The challenges of replacing traditional solvents with greener or sustainable alternatives must be addressed through the development of multidisciplinary partnerships, and by adopting sustainable holistic approaches.

This series will highlight the vast opportunities that exist for green chemistry in the development and application of solvents.

Editors: Dr Andrew Hunt, Prof Ray Marriott, Dr James Sherwood


  1. Driven by legislation and evolving attitudes towards environmental issues, establishing green solvents for extractions, separations, formulations and reaction chemistry has become an increasingly important are...

    Authors: Fergal P. Byrne, Saimeng Jin, Giulia Paggiola, Tabitha H. M. Petchey, James H. Clark, Thomas J. Farmer, Andrew J. Hunt, C. Robert McElroy and James Sherwood
    Citation: Sustainable Chemical Processes 2016 4:7
    Content type: Review Published on:

  2. Protic ionic liquids (PILs) have been suggested as “greener” alternatives to conventional solvents in various industrial applications. In order to assess their suitability for such purposes, a thorough evaluat...

    Authors: Joshua E. S. J. Reid, Neil Sullivan, Lorna Swift, Guy A. Hembury, Seishi Shimizu and Adam J. Walker
    Citation: Sustainable Chemical Processes 2015 3:17
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  3. Alcohols are widely used, and sometimes renewable, reagents but the hydroxyl moiety is a relatively poor leaving group under mild conditions. Direct nucleophilic substitution of alcohols is a desirable reactio...

    Authors: Chad F. Petten, Hassan A. Kalviri and Francesca M. Kerton
    Citation: Sustainable Chemical Processes 2015 3:16
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  4. Butadiene sulfone has been employed as a “volatile”, recyclable dipolar, aprotic solvent in the reaction of benzyl halide with metal azides to form benzyl azide (1) and the subsequent reaction of benzyl azide ...

    Authors: Yong Huang, Esteban E. Ureña-Benavides, Afrah J. Boigny, Zachary S. Campbell, Fiaz S. Mohammed, Jason S. Fisk, Bruce Holden, Charles A. Eckert, Pamela Pollet and Charles L. Liotta
    Citation: Sustainable Chemical Processes 2015 3:13
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  5. Deep eutectic solvents (DES) have recently emerged as promising non-hazardous environmentally-friendly solvents. In this respect, the use of DES as media for multi-step enzyme-organocatalysis (C–C bond formati...

    Authors: Christoph R Müller, Andreas Rosen and Pablo Domínguez de María
    Citation: Sustainable Chemical Processes 2015 3:12
    Content type: Research Article Published on: