Green Solvent Applications in Sustainable Chemistry
Summary
Green solvents have emerged as a pillar of sustainable chemistry, offering alternatives to traditional volatile organic compounds that pose environmental and health risks. These solvents are engineered to minimise toxicity, reduce volatile emissions and derive from renewable sources. The field encompasses diverse classes—water and bio-based solvents, ionic liquids, deep eutectic solvents, supercritical fluids and neoteric media—each with distinct physicochemical attributes that can be tuned to specific applications. In organic synthesis, green solvents facilitate catalytic processes with improved selectivity, lower energy input and enhanced recyclability. In materials science, they enable polymer production, nanomaterial fabrication and composite assembly under milder conditions with fewer by-products. Analytical chemistry also benefits from green media, where solvent choice influences extraction efficiency and sample preparation. Implementation at scale requires balancing intrinsic solvent greenness with factors such as feedstock sustainability, process mass intensity and end-of-life fate. This global endeavour is driven by regulatory pressures, circular-economy imperatives and a shared goal of reducing the chemical footprint across pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, coatings and beyond.
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Green Solvent Applications in Sustainable Chemistry publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in green solvent applications in sustainable chemistry across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Ionic liquid: A salt composed of organic cations and anions that is liquid at or near room temperature, offering negligible vapour pressure and tunable solvation properties.
Deep eutectic solvent: A mixture of hydrogen-bond donors and acceptors that forms a low-melting eutectic with diverse chemical functionality and biodegradability.
Supercritical fluid: A substance above its critical temperature and pressure that exhibits gas- and liquid-like properties, used to enhance diffusivity and reduce solvent residues.
Biosolvent: A solvent derived from renewable biomass sources, such as sugars or glycerol, selected for low toxicity and environmental impact.
References
- The green solvent: a critical perspective. Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy (2021).
- Opportunities for Bio-Based Solvents Created as Petrochemical and Fuel Products Transition towards Renewable Resources. International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2015).
- A methodical selection process for the development of ketones and esters as bio-based replacements for traditional hydrocarbon solvents. Green Chemistry (2018).
- Analytical chemistry with biosolvents. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry (2019).
- Ionic liquids as alternative solvents for energy conservation and environmental engineering. Acta Innovations (2021).
- Green Chemistry Approach for Fabrication of Polymer Composites. Sustainable Chemistry (2021).
- Sustainable Synthesis of the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient Atenolol in Deep Eutectic Solvents. International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2024).
- Synthesis without solvent: consequences for mechanochemical reactivity. Chemical Communications (2023).
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