Introduction to green chemistry Concepts and trends in green analytical chemistry "Greening" sample preparation Green instrumental analysis "Greening" signal acquisition and processing Conclusions This book describes the applications, ideas and concepts of green chemistry in chemical analysis and evaluates the performance of current methodologies.
Mihkel Koel is based in the Faculty of Science at the Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia. He is a senior research scientist with a PhD in chemical analysis. Mihkel Kaljurand is a Professor of Analytical Chemistry within the Faculty of Science at the Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Green Analytical ChemistryBy Mihkel Koel, Mihkel KaljurandThe Royal Society of ChemistryCopyright © 2010 Mihkel Koel and Mihkel KaljurandAll rights reserved.ISBN: 978-1-84755-872-5ContentsChapter 1 Introduction to Green Chemistry, Chapter 2 Concepts and Trends in Green Analytical Chemistry, Chapter 3 "Greening" Sample Treatment, Chapter 4 Green Instrumental Analysis, Chapter 5 Separation Methods in Analytical Chemistry, Chapter 6 Greening Analytical Chemistry by Improving Signal Acquisition and Processing, Chapter 7 Conclusions, Subject Index, CHAPTER 1Introduction to Green ChemistryScience and technology are the cornerstones of the development of human society. Science provides humans with very powerful tools, the careless use of which endangers their world. The result could well be an environment inhospitable to human habitation. It is conceivable that without serious effort, this scenario will prevail and the further development of society could be jeopardized.Chemistry is a very old discipline, with references to chemical transformations and debate about the nature of matter dating back to the times of the ancient Egyptians and Greeks. Modern chemistry began to emerge from alchemy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, thanks to scholars such as Robert Boyle and Antoine Lavoisier, and made rapid advances in the following two centuries.At the present time, the central role of chemistry in science is synthesis. The structure and bonding of molecules is at the core of the discipline, especially in organic chemistry, and using weaker intermolecular forces to assemble supra-molecules is a field with much still to explore. Understanding phenomena at the molecular level is vital to future innovation and invention.The chemical sciences continue to be at the heart of multidisciplinary initiatives. Today, chemical tools — and the analytical tools chemists use — are especially pertinent to research in biology. For example, much of gene technology is chemistry. The chemical sciences provide the wide expertise for most scientific and technological developments and thus continue to make enormous contributions to social, cultural, economic and intellectual advances. Chemistry contributes to our well being, long life expectancy and economic prosperity. It satisfies the desire for better materials for everyday life and accommodation, for drugs to cure illnesses and improve health, for pure water, and a host of other human activities.For this reason, energy and sustainable chemistry are key themes in current zdiscussions about the future. Chemicals are present in all spheres of human life. Among other things, they are used as pharmaceuticals, pesticides, detergents, fertilizers, dyes, paints, preservatives and food additives. The first and most influential description of the dangers related to chemicals in the environment is found in Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, published in 1962.Synthetic chemicals end up in the environment in many different ways. The chemical industry is a point source of emissions which create changes around that point. In everyday life the constituents and ingredients of consumer or household products and other open applications emit chemicals into the environment via non-point sources. Chemicals and their compositions do degrade and break down into water, carbon dioxide and inorganic salts, but very often the degradation is incomplete. Unknown transformation products can result from such biological and chemical processes as hydrolysis, redox reactions or photolysis. These unknown chem Read less
