Green Chemistry and Its Applications

Green chemistry is defined as “the design of chemical products and methods that eliminate or remove the practice and generation of unsafe and hazardous materials”. It is also called Sustainable Chemistry. The exponential growth of the population has emerged in the drastic debilitation of non-renewable fossil resources and an enormous rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide which led to severe energy and environmental crisis. Consequently, it is highly urgent to develop renewable energy to meet the sustainable development of society. Many Chemical Industries mainly pharmaceuticals encounter critical environmental issues for many years. Most of the chemical products have good applications but these compounds produce hazardous waste that is not eco-friendly.

Moreover, keeping natural resources on earth without using harmful materials is the prime goal of green chemistry. Also, it was found that it is critical to develop substitute technologies that are safer for both human health and the environment. Furthermore, through various methods of green chemistry environment can be preserved. Nearly most of them are biocatalysis, usage of alternate repeatable raw materials (biomass), diverse reaction solvents (such as water, supercritical fluids, ionic liquids) alternative reaction circumstances likewise Electron beam irradiation method, new photocatalytic reactions, microwave irradiation, radiolysis, ultrasound irradiation etc.

With the introduction of 12 principles of green chemistry, guidelines were provided by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) for chemists to develop clean environment-friendly methodologies that are sustainable for the long term. These principles incorporate: Less hazardous chemical synthesis, atom economy, prevention, designing safer chemicals, design for energy efficiency, safer solvents, reduced derivatives, use of renewable feedstock, catalysis, design for degradation, inherently safer chemistry for accident prevention, and real-time analysis for population prevention.