Chemistry On Water - Organic Synthesis in Aqueous Suspension

Chemistry On Water - Organic Synthesis in Aqueous Suspension 

Sridhar Narayan, Valery V. Fokin, and K. Barry Sharpless 

Water possesses many of the ideal characteristics for a reaction medium- it is readily available at negligible cost, is safe and convenient to use, and has low environmental impact. 

In this chapter, we describe a completely different approach for the use of water as a medium for organic reactions. We have found that a wide variety of organic reactions can be conveniently carried out simply by stirring the neat reactants in an aqueous suspension. We have termed such reactions on water , and define the on water reactions as those fulfilling the following requirements  

Water is the only reaction medium - i.e., no organic cosolvents are employed. 

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