Green chemistry and atom economy

Green chemistry is the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate hazardous substances. Rather than cleaning up pollution after it is made, it aims to prevent waste and harm in the first place. In 1998, chemists Paul Anastas and John Warner published 12 principles of green chemistry, which include preventing waste, using safer solvents and less hazardous chemicals, designing chemicals that break down harmlessly after use, using renewable raw materials, saving energy by running reactions at room temperature and pressure when possible, and using catalysts instead of reagents that get used up. One key measure is atom economy, the percentage of the reactants' mass that ends up in the desired product: atom economy = (mass of desired product / total mass of reactants) x 100%, using the masses from the balanced equation. Percent yield tells how much product was actually made compared with the most possible, but a reaction with a high percent yield can still have a low atom economy if it also makes a lot of unwanted by-products. Examples of green chemistry include replacing toxic solvents with water or supercritical carbon dioxide, making some plastics from plants instead of petroleum, and redesigning how medicines are manufactured to cut waste.

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