Advances in Green Organic Sonochemistry

Over the past 15 years, sustainable chemistry has emerged as a new paradigm in the development of chemistry. In the field of organic synthesis, green chemistry rhymes with relevant choice of starting materials, atom economy, methodologies that minimize the number of chemical steps, appropriate use of benign solvents and reagents, efficient strategies for product isolation and purification and energy minimization. In that context, unconventional methods, and especially ultrasound, can be a fine addition towards achieving these green requirements. Undoubtedly, sonochemistry is considered as being one of the most promising green chemical methods (Cravotto et al. Catal Commun 63: 2-9, 2015). This review is devoted to the most striking results obtained in green organic sonochemistry between 2006 and 2016. Furthermore, among catalytic transformations, oxidation reactions are the most polluting reactions in the chemical industry; thus, we have focused a part of our review on the very promising catalytic activity of ultrasound for oxidative purposes.