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MICROWAVE TECHNOLOGY CHEMICAL SYNTHESIS APPLICATIONS
Citation:
Varma*, R S. MICROWAVE TECHNOLOGY CHEMICAL SYNTHESIS APPLICATIONS. Fifith, Chapter , Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology. John Wiley & Sons Incorporated, New York, NY, 16:538-594, (2007).
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Description:
Microwave-accelerated chemical syntheses in various solvents as well as under solvent-free conditions have witnessed an explosive growth. The technique has found widespread application predominantly exploiting the inexpensive unmodified household microwave (MW) ovens although the use of dedicated MW ewuipment has been rapidly gaining ground. Of special interest is the environmentally friendlier solventless approach that often involves exposure of neat reactions to MW irradiation or employs supported reagents on recyclable inorganic oxides or catalysts and has been adequately demonstrated in several MW-assisted condensation, deprotection, rearrangement, cyclization, reduction and oxidation reactions. The rapid one-pot preparation of heterocyclic compounds from in situ generated reactive intermediates and the general application to multi-component reactions, that are adaptable for building a library of compounds has been accomplished using this MW technique. More recently, the strategy has been extended to combinatorial chemistry and the synthesis of a newer class of solvents, ionic liquids that are essentially molten salts with barely measurable vapor pressure. The salient features of these high yield protocols namely the selectivity, esperimental ease of manipulation and the enhanced reaction rates are discussed.
