Urea clathrates applications

The slight difference between the lattice energies of the diastereomeric urea clathrates leads to low ee values and renders the steering of the recrystallization a difficult process which depends strongly on experimental conditions. Therefore, the development of new more universally applicable host substances has largely replaced urea for the resolution of racemates. 

The total world production of urea is about 100 million tons per year. By far the largest part of it is used as a nitrogen fertilizer both in solid form and in solution this consumes approximately 87% of all urea production. It is also a livestock feed additive (5%) and a raw material for urea-formaldehyde resins (6%) and melamine (1%). Other applications (1%) include its use as deicing agent, raw material for fine chemicals (cyanuric acid, sulfamic acid), formation of crystalline clathrates, and so on. 

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