Using more environmentally friendly solvents and benign catalysts in performing conventional organic reactions.

The protection of the environment from toxic materials is an area of increasing concern. This review describes selected chemical processes that use more environmentally friendly solvents and less toxic catalysts. For example, water, ionic liquids and supercritical fluids have demonstrated promising activity as alternative benign reaction media for various reactions. The advantages of neat reactions in the absence of any solvent and the use of fluorous compounds as phase-separable catalysts are also described.