Novel solvents for sustainable production of specialty chemicals.

We discuss novel solvents that improve the sustainability of various chemical reactions and processes. These alternative solvents include organic-aqueous tunable solvents; near-critical water; switchable piperylene sulfone, a volatile dimethylsulfoxide substitute; and reversible ionic liquids. These solvents are advantageous to a wide variety of reactions because they reduce waste and energy demand by coupling homogeneous reactions with heterogeneous separations, acting as in situ acid or base catalysts, and providing simple and efficient postreaction separations.