Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice

What is green chemistry? In Green Chemistry- Theory and Practice, Paul T. Anastas and John C. Warner provide a concise and comprehensive answer- Green chemistry 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. . . . Measure by measure, [Anastas] and Warner fill this abstract and fairly broad definition with life. Their short book provides a framework for the pursuit of environmentally compatible chemistry. This introductory text is intended to provide abasis for teaching and includes a collection of exercises for the topics of each chapter. . . . [This book] should be consulted by anyone who wants to know about environmentally benign chemistry and, especially, by scientists who contemplate adopting its principles in their own research or teachingefforts.-ScienceHistorically, as Paul Anastas and John Warner point out in Green Chemistry- Theory and Practice, synthetic chemists have not been particularly environmentally conscious, since their involvement was at the beginning of the chemical synthetic chain whereas problems were mostly encountered at its end.The solution is the replacement of these technologies with cleaner catalytic alternatives. The emphasis is on eliminating waste at source-primary pollution prevention-rather than finding incremental end-of-pipe solutions. This has now become known as green chemistry, and is defined by Anastas andWarner 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. The tools of green chemistry are alternative feedstocks, solvents and reagents, and catalytic versusstoichiometric processes.-NatureAnastas from the US Environmental Protection Agency and Warner (chemistry, U. of Massachusetts-Boston) introduce the design, development, and evaluation processes of a currently active area of research that concentrates on the handling and use of chemicals to ensure efficiency but also human andenvironmental compatibility. They take a wide view and integrate such topics as alternative foodstocks, environmentally benign synthetic methodologies, designing safer chemical products, new reaction conditions, alternative solvents and catalyst development, and the use of biosynthesis andbiomimetic principles. They also describe a new evaluation process that encompasses the health and environmental impact of a synthetic pathway from the choice to starting materials to the target molecule. They write for graduate and professional chemists, and include exercises for classroom orindividual study.-SciTech Book News