The use of microwave irradiation for the promotion and enhancement of chemical reactions: an overview

• Published in: Proceedings of Oleo & Specialty Chemicals Conference: PIPOC 2007: International Palm Oil Congress: Palm Oil: Empowering Change pp. 3 - 15
• Main Author: Iannelli, Mauro
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Malaysian Palm oil Board 2007
• Subjects: Chemical reactions; Chemistry; Dielectric properties; Heating; Microwave radiation; Polymers

The use of microwave irradiation has become, in the last 20 years, a well-established technique to promote and enhance chemical reactions. A proof of it is the increasing number of publication concerning the application of microwave (MW) in all fields ofthe chemical sciences. The coupling of MW with the matter results in the so-called dielectric heating that leads to strong enhancements in terms of reaction time, yield and selectivity for a wide range of organic and inorganic reactions. Modern MW reactions are equipped with build-in magnetic stirrers and direct temperature control. This enables the reaction mixture to be heated to an accurate preset temperature avoiding thermal runaways. These dedicated instruments ensure an adequate control of parameters suchas temperature, microwave power, pressure and should be the only ones used to provide a correct reproducibility of the experimental results. In this connection we want to review here a series of reactions that show the superiority of the MW approach compared to the conventional synthetic strategies.