Microwaves in Organic Synthetic Chemistry- A Greener Approach to Environmental Protection: An Overview

Microwave assisted organic synthesis is an environment friendly approach to synthesis as it is simple, innovative, gives high yield at low cost, and reduces the use of solvents. Conventional methods used in chemical synthetic processes involve the use of substances that are harmful to the environment. To cope with this issue, chemists were in search of a green alternative to conventional chemical practices that resulted in the development of a new branch of chemistry known as “Green chemistry”. It foresees minimum impact to the environment as aprimary criteria while developing any new chemical process. This predetermined target of green chemistry is achieved by considering different gist areas such as elimination of the use of traditional organic solvents if possible, finding alternative reaction media, conditions to minimize undesirable chemical waste formation, reaction rate enhancement using microwaves as energy source, etc. Microwave technique involves energy transfer that leads to rapid and uniform heating of the dielectric materials which often results in homogeneity and increased yield of the resultant products. It has numerous advantages over conventional thermal process such as shorter reaction time, better yield product, and less energy consumption. The present article describes microwave irradiation as a valuable energy efficient alternative to the conventional heating for greener organic synthesis.