Faster, cleaner and greener: why chemistry in micellar and micellar-like media is now a viable option for chemical development and beyond.

Since the first set of publications in 2008, more and more workhorse chemistries for the pharmaceutical, agrochemical and fine chemical industries have been successfully performed in aqueous solutions of designer surfactants.  Clean and sometimes unexpected outcomes are often observed by performing chemistry within the aggregated surfactant structures.  Irrespective of whether the product crystallises directly out of solution or  an extractive workup is required, the amount of waste generated will often compare favourably to the variant of the reaction performed in solely organic solvent.  Whilst tuning the surfactant structure for specific chemistries is now an active area of research, aqueous solutions of a nontoxic food additive are also showing promise as media for a variety of chemistries. This webinar will describe the growing successes associated with using micellar(-like) reaction media and polymeric solubilisers for workhorse reactions, and the real and perceived challenges associated with their adoption.

Who should attend?  organic chemists and engineers invested in controlling the amount and type of waste generated by their manufacturing processes and who are curious about how chemistry in water can sometimes lead to more selective outcomes than chemistry in organic solvents.

This webinar was presented by Dr Alan Steven and was kindly sponsored by CatSci.