Preface

In 2015 the United Nations declared a framework comprising 17 aspirational goals known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which was meant to be adopted by governments, industries, and other stakeholders worldwide to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people live with peace and prosperity by 2030. It can make the environment sustainable, in other words. Chemistry can play an essential role in helping society achieve the SDGs and Green Chemistry (GC) specifically may be a key player in this regard. GC complements other streams of chemistry, including environmental chemistry. Environmental Chemistry is the ‘chemistry of the environment’ that explains nature and the impact of man on nature. At the same time, GC is ‘chemistry for the environment’ i.e., more environmentally friendly chemistry. GC may be defined as “invention, design and application of chemical products and processes to reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances”. New chemical research, green and sustainable chemistry education, green and sustainable chemical manufacturing practices, and a sense of social responsibility are critical for all chemists worldwide as we work together to protect our planet Earth. SDGs including Zero Hunger, Good Health and Well-being, Clean Water and Sanitation, Affordable and Clean Energy, Industries, Innovation and Infrastructure, Responsible Consumption and Production, Climate Action is directly related to chemistry at large and GC in precise. Therefore, if we rightly practice GC, it serves the purpose of environmental sustainability and will be useful in achieving the SDGs, which will ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity in the long run. Green Chemistry Education is quite important in this regard, which needs to be practiced more and more.

Recent years have seen a disheartening string of revelations in which everyday items once considered safe—food packaging, toys, clothes, furniture, electronic components, and many more products—are found to contain carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, and other harmful chemicals.1 Growing demand for healthier alternatives, already seen in food production and housing construction,2 is also happening at the building-block level of manufacturing, where so-called green chemistry represents a revolutionary change in preventing pollution and health problems starting at the chemical design stage. Many industry and government entities are beginning to espouse the principles of green chemistry on their websites and in public statements. Now comes the task of crafting policy to put those principles into action. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines green chemistry as “the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances. Green chemistry applies across the life cycle of a chemical product, including its design, manufacture, and use.”3 Green chemistry also aims to mitigate the type of uncertainty Alan Gold-berg, a professor of toxicology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, recently described to The New York Times: “I can get [toxicity] information on only 20 percent of chemicals we interact with on a daily basis.”4 Of that 20%, he now says, he may be able to find information on overt toxicity for about half, but for details on specific effects such as developmental neurotoxicity, the figure shrinks toward zero. So what does green chemistry look like? Consider the example of pregabalin, the active ingredient in the neuropathic pain drug Lyrica®. Pfizer developed an alternative green-chemistry process that converted several steps of pregabalin synthesis from use of organic solvents to water. That reduced both health hazards and production heating requirements. With the new synthesis, waste from the process dropped from 86 kg of waste per kg product to 17 kg, and energy use dropped by 82%.5 Proponents say that’s how the field can offer a win–win–win solution: good performance, lower cost, and less environmental impact—what Richard Engler, program manager of the EPA Green Chemistry Program, calls the “triple bottom line.” For many, a standard is a logical next step. “At some point you have to go beyond a definition and principles,” says Engler. “I think that’s something the standard will enable.”

Catalysis as a foundational pillar of green chemistry

This Special Topic issue on green chemistry pursues the same objectives as the Special Topic issue published in July 2000 and can be considered as its continuation. The articles have been selected (with great difficulty) from the massive and valuable scientific contributions on green chemistry by numerous professors and researchers during the 1st International IUPAC Conference on Green-Sustainable Chemistry held 10-15 September 2006 (for more details on the conference, see Chemistry International, Vol. 29, No. 3, 2007). The wide selection of topics was chosen with the intent to attract industrial researchers and representatives, colleagues from universities, as well as politicians and students who are interested in green and sustainable chemistry. The week-long conference was divided into five topics, each of which included several subtopics. This special issue covers the following topics discussed during the conference: benign syntheses routes (heterogeneous catalysis, new reagents, and catalysis for degradation of pollutants); benign process technology (microwave technology, photochemistry, new regulation devices); use of renewable sources (starch, cellulose, sugar, new detergents, biomass technology); and future green energy sources (hydrogen technology, fuel cell technology, biodiesel). All the articles reported in this issue point out a general need for novel green processes which comes from a new paradigm in process and product evaluation that must include environmental and health issues (see Chemistry International, Vol. 29, No. 5, 2007). In order to reach this objective, one priority should be to push for more basic research on chemical reactions related to green chemistry, where our knowledge is far from completion. In recent times, in fact, the difference between sustainable chemistry and green chemistry is becoming more evident. Sustainable chemistry envisages an industrial involvement and promotion with the aim of achieving fewer pollutant processes and more valuable products, maintaining, at the same time, profits. Whereas green chemistry is more innovative because it is not necessarily connected to profits, it involves fundamental aspects and does not aim automatically at an industrial process. There is a great need to create a new type of chemistry focused on a new production system and utilization of chemical derivatives, in order to prepare the younger generation to reach a greener future. Following this scenario, this special issue has been planned with the aim of extending the knowledge on green chemistry, not disregarding, however, the industrial interest. Nowadays, globalization (induced by many factors such as industrial development) pushes the chemistry community to adopt ethical issues. In this respect, green chemistry can achieve, better than sustainable chemistry, the approval of society by teaching students to be confident in science and at the same time by convincing people that it is possible to achieve technological development respecting and taking care of the environment in which we live. In order to realize these objectives, it is important that education and fundamental research are strictly connected, so that democracy and development can also grow and progress side by side. In my personal experience I think that the young generation is very interested and passionate about green chemistry. An example is dott. Fabio Aricò (postdoctorate fellow in my group) who helped me through the organization of the IUPAC conference and the preparation of this special issue with enthusiasm and passion. Pietro Tundo Conference Chairman

New research on reduction and/or elimination of hazardous substances in the design, manufacture and application of chemical products

In the pursuit towards attaining sustainability, arrays of greener pathways are being carved to address the needs of the diverse chemical universe. The evolving area of green and sustainable chemistry envisions minimum hazard as the performance criterion while designing new chemical processes. Green Chemistry is defined as "the utilization of a set of principles that reduces or eliminates the use or generation of hazardous substances in the design, manufacture, and application of chemical products" [1]. Sustainable processes are being sought to explore alternatives to conventional chemical syntheses and transformations. Among several thrust areas for achieving this target includes: the utility of alternative feedstocks, preferably from renewable materials or waste from other industries; unconventional efficient reaction conditions and eco-friendly reaction media to accomplish the desired chemical transformations with minimized by-products or waste generation, and ideally avoiding the use of conventional volatile organic solvents, wherever possible. Other avenues for achieving this objective are to explore the generation of efficient catalytic processes, particularly magnetically retrievable nano-catalysts [1,2,3,4]. In addition to greener synthesis, the recyclability and reuse aspects for catalytic systems are extremely significant particularly when it boils down to the use of endangered elements and precious catalysts. Several friendlier applications in catalysis have been advanced via magnetically recoverable and recyclable nano-catalysts for oxidation, reduction, and multi-component condensation reactions [1,2,3,4] and this has made a terrific impact on the development of green chemical pathways [1]. The greener preparation of nanoparticles has been exemplified via the use of vitamins B1, B2, C, and tea [5] and wine polyphenols [6], beet juice [7] and other agricultural residues which function both as reducing and capping agents. This avoids the need to deploy toxic reducing agents, such as borohydrides or hydrazines and empowers simple and aqueous green synthetic methods to produce bulk quantities of nano-catalysts without the requirement for large amounts of insoluble templates [8]. [...]

Modern chemistry is one of the essential tools in pursuing better medical care, more efficient telecommunications and informatics, and increased agricultural production. However, certain chemicals produced and used in large quantities might cause various hazards in environmental sectors, owing to their global (trans-boundary) translocation, as well as their intrinsically hazardous properties. To reduce environmental risk of such chemicals, international regulatory measures have already been taken [e.g., in response to the initiatives of the Intergovernmental Forum in Chemical Safety (IFCS)], including legally binding implementations and national capacity building in developing countries. Herein lies the urgent need for promoting worldwide research into green chemistry (sustainable chemistry), in which the invention and application of chemical products and processes are designed to reduce or to eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances. Indeed, green chemistry should encompass a variety of disciplines of fundamental chemistry in IUPAC, to encourage new trends of chemical research. Moreover, results of these researches could be effectively applied for solving environmental problems related to the production and use of chemicals and to create a new chemical industry in the future. As such, green chemistry research conforms completely to the mission-oriented activity of IUPAC to meet regulatory requirements for achieving environmentally sound management of chemicals. We sincerely hope that the present special issue highlighting the state of the art and future prospects of green chemistry research will encourage all chemists who intend to serve society through their research efforts. J. Miyamoto Past-President of IUPAC Chemistry and the Environment Division The increasing knowledge in natural sciences and the application of this knowledge are the driving forces for the development and welfare of mankind. Chemistry plays a central role in this development. Chemistry provides the molecular understanding of physical properties of materials and other matters and thus closely interacts with physics. Chemistry also provides the molecular understanding of living systems and is the basis for modern biology and medicine. The development and opportunities of synthetic chemistry have opened a new dimension for tailor-made materials and compounds for specific purposes. The driving forces for developments in chemistry have been very strong, and there is a demand for new and efficient processes and chemicals. Aspects of sustainable and environmentally friendly processes and chemicals have sometimes been lagging behind this demand. Fortunately, chemistry also provides the tools for a green and sustainable development. Knowledge in this general area has to be integrated into the planning of all research and development in chemistry. There are specific research topics related to the development of green and sustainable processes, which need the input of new technology and novel chemistry. The present Symposium-in-Print provides an overview of recent research and development in the field. We hope that it will stimulate further activities in the field. It is planned as a first step in an IUPAC action on this subject. The IUPAC Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry Division is grateful to its Subcommittee on Organic Synthesis and particularly Professor Pietro Tundo for initiating and engaging in this action, and to him and Profs. David StC. Black and Sofia Memoli for editing the Symposium-in-Print. Torbjörn Norin President of IUPAC Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry Division

We are grateful to Environmental Health Perspectives for implicitly embracing green chemistry as a field with profound connections to the environmental health sciences. We also commend the efforts of Wilson and Schwarzman (2009) to create greater transparency and accountability around chemicals of concern. We take issue, however, with their approach to key scientific concepts and terminology—specifically their effort to change the definition of “green chemistry.” Precision in terminology is paramount for science to function; all parties to a scientific discussion must share the same set of definitions for knowledge to advance effectively. In their review, Wilson and Schwarzman (2009) ignored the original and current definition of green chemistry, which for almost two decades has been recognized as a scientific discipline within the field of chemistry. Defined in the early 1990s by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2009) as “the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances,” green chemistry is now guided by a set of 12 principles (Anastas and Warner 1998) that are used in both research and teaching in chemis try laboratories around the world. Based on these principles, dozens of universities around the world teach green chemistry as a science. Seven graduate programs offer degrees in green chemistry. Two established peer-reviewed scientific journals focus specifically on research in green chemistry. The impact factor of the journal Green Chemistry (published by the Royal Society of Chemistry) has increased from 2.5 to almost 5 over the past 5 years. More than 1,500 articles on green chemistry have been published in the scientific literature over the past 15 years. Rather than embracing green chemistry’s widely used scientific definition, Wilson and Schwarzman (2009) instead conflate science and policy: The laws governing the chemical enterprise help define the incentives and disincentives that guide economic behavior in the market …. We use the term green chemistry in this context: as an analytical framework that encompasses both the science of safer chemistry and the laws and policies that will motivate its development and adoption by society. This conflation brings with it two risks. First, it undermines clarity in scientific communication, something that is especially important as the fields of environmental health and green chemistry attempt to establish cross-disciplinary collaboration. Such collaborations are likely to prove vital for both fields. Second, it saddles the intellectual and scientific enterprise of green chemistry with policy and, potentially, political baggage, as considerations of chemical policies unfold in the political arena. We are most certainly not arguing that the science of green chemistry should not inform chemical policies. Science and policy will be more effective, however, if political actors do not muddy accepted scientific terminology in service of a political/policy agenda, no matter how noble.

Catalyst has a noteworthy role in chemical processes in both industrial and scientific fields. Use of catalyst can helps to serve less energy, time and money. As a result, chemical process became more eco-friendly and economical. Nanocatalysts are an important branch in this issue. Multicomponent reactions (MCRs) are one of the most effective strategies in the field of green chemistry; witch is the utilization of a set of principles that reduces or eliminates the use or generation of hazardous substances in the design, manufacture, and application of chemical products. Therefore, by application of nanocatalysts in MCRs, chemical synthesis can approach aims of green and sustainable chemistry. As it is mentioned nanocatalyst, are important field and have many advantages in recent years. Magnetic nanocatalysts are a subdivision of catalyst and beneficial strategy in green chemistry. Biocatalysts are another one either. Meet of these two branches results a new, efficient and green nanocatalyst. Chitosan is a biopolymer and it is used in many organic syntheses as catalyst, supporting this with a magnetic nanocatalystmodified this biocatalyst and enhance its properties, also leads to another efficient and green catalyst.

What is green chemistry?

The manufacturing, application, and design of chemical processes and products that minimize or remove waste and the use of dangerous and toxic reagents are referred to as green chemistry. Green chemistry is made up of twelve principles, one of which is catalysis. The role of catalysis is to accelerate the reaction by introducing a substance called a catalyst. Because of their high efficiency, productivity, activity, and selectivity, nanocatalysts have recently received many interests. Nanocatalysts are characterized by their high surface area to volume ratio, as well as their nanoscale forms and sizes. One of the significant applications of nanocatalysts is wastewater and wastewater purification. Green and bio-synthesized nanocatalysts could be used efficiently to remove heavy metals, medicinal, organic, and inorganic pollutants from the wastewater systems. This paper reviews nanocatalysts based on noble and magnetic nanocatalysts, as well as metal catalysts supported by organic polymers, and discusses their industrial effluent treatment mechanisms.

Green chemistry can also be referred to as sustainable chemistry and it is the design of chemical products and processes aimed at less or less the use of hazardous substances. It's about lessening the destructive consequences on the environment and the earth's sustainability (Wale et al., 2023; Mane et al., 2023). This accommodates many principles that outline how to design safer chemical reactions as well as technology and the use of green chemicals (De, 2023; Rathi et al., 2023). Such principles include the elimination or reduction of generation, using renewable raw materials, and the production of safer substances and materials to decrease harm to human health and the environment, according to Nithya and Sathish (2023). Thus, green chemistry's goal is to bring radical changes in industries researching for effective and eco-friendly strategies for the synthesis of materials, including nanomaterials, through employing cost-efficiency and biocompatibility with the help of earth's resources (De, 2023).

RETURN TO ISSUEPREVNewsNEXTGreen Chemistry Institute Joins ACSLINDA RABERCite this: Chem. Eng. News 2000, 78, 49, 13–14Publication Date (Print):December 4, 2000Publication History Published online12 November 2010Published inissue 4 December 2000https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/cen-v078n049.p013ahttps://doi.org/10.1021/cen-v078n049.p013anewsACS PublicationsCopyright © 2000 American Chemical SocietyArticle Views12Altmetric-Citations2LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InRedditEmail Other access options SUBJECTS:Green chemistry Get e-Alerts

Synthesis of 2,3,5- Triphenyl imidazole is carried out by conventional method/ traditional method as well as green chemistry in the present study. Green chemistry is also known as micro-wave assisted synthesis. Green chemistry is the design of chemical products and process that eliminates the use and generation of hazardous substances. Using green solvent, like water, synthesis of biologically active moiety with high percentage yield as well as purity. The Percentage yield of 2,3,5- Triphenyl imidazole obtained by Green Chemistry Approach is 90.90% whereas Conventional/Traditional method produces only 69.60% of 2,3,5- Triphenyl imidazole constant concentration of all organic reagents. Hence, we concluded that green chemistry approach is environment friendly.

Science Education International ¦ Volume 32 ¦ Issue 2 107 ORIGINAL ARTICLE INTRODUCTION The problem-based learning (PBL) methodology is a student-centered approach that is related to the learning process that occurs when students deal with real world problems, while working in teams to find and develop a solution, with teachers/instructors acting as facilitators (Nagarajan and Overton, 2019). Some elements seem to be common to PBL: Learning is student centered (as mentioned before), problems are structured and authentic, teachers act as advisors, and students work in small groups (Cowden and Santiago, 2016). Although, the elements are in constant interaction, students are responsible of their learning, implying that they have the main role in the cognitive process and should work actively, in group, to solve a problem. On the other hand, instructors act as coaches, they incite group discussion, and they are in charge of monitoring the process. Students are the main characters, since PBL methodology emerged from constructivist learning theories and it was developed as an alternative to conventional teaching (Loyens et al., 2006). Constructivism suggests that humans build knowledge from their experiences and, contrary to traditional education, where students receive knowledge like empty vessels to be filled, in constructivist, students are encouraged to confront what they know (Bada and Olusegun, 2015). It is evident that, long-term memorability is enhanced by PBL, because it fosters the utilization of previous knowledge to solve a new problem and demands students to put in practice what they have already been taught, therefore, facilitating the comprehension of the concepts (Schmidt et al., 2011). Other benefits that come along with PBL include the improvement of student’s creative thinking, self-regulated skills, and self-evaluation (Jansson et al., 2015; Yoon et al., 2014). Therefore, to improve chemistry student’s learning experience, the PBL approach can be used for a better comprehension of the importance of Green Chemistry. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, 1990), Green Chemistry is the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances; this designing process can be assisted by the Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry (Lancaster, 2002). The principles are qualitative, and their aim is to minimize the impact of chemical activities on human health and environment without compromising the chemical process (Ribeiro and Machado, 2013). There is a commitment to green chemistry education (Armstrong et al., 2018), and efforts have been made to implement it, at the undergraduate level (Timmer et al., 2018; Kennedy, 2016; Manchanayakage, 2013), but there is an uneven development of green chemistry curricular materials, since there have been few comprehensive reforms for general chemistry lecture or laboratory curricula (Armstrong et al., 2019). For example, Green Chemistry has not been covered extensively by chemistry A problem-based learning (PBL) methodology was implemented to a project, whose main objectives were to discuss and apply the Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry to the study of poly(vinyl alcohol)’s cross-linking reaction with dicarboxylic acids. The five participating students were oriented to be responsible for their own learning and the professor participated as an advisor. The problem was proposed and students planned all their activities to accomplish the objectives and goals, reviewed recent information in scientific literature and summarized it, made experimental work, prepared written reports, and were evaluated in seminars. The results obtained by the students were assessed through the generation of a final report and also with a final oral presentation in front of faculty members. The experience lived by the collaborative workgroup during the development and execution of the project, is described. This research is an example of how the PBL methodology can motivate the active participation of students when solving problems. The next step is to introduce this tool to teachers and students of other undergraduate courses or laboratories, since it causes a difference in the way education is being perceived in our university, because it emphasizes the application and understanding of concepts over simple memorization.