Principles of green chemistry

Abstract Green chemistry has been defined concisely in Chapter 2, and while green chemistry has also been described as the Hippocratic Oath for the Chemist (‘First, do no harm.’), the true definition of a subdiscipline or an area of investigation comes from the research and the accomplishments that are conducted therein. It is this organically grown definition that not only answers the question ‘What is green chemistry?’, but also provides the scope and range for green chemistry so that we can view where green chemistry can and will go in the future. The listing of the ‘Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry’ should be viewed as a reflection of the science that has been done within this nascent field in the recent past, as well as as a direction that has been set by some of the pioneering scientists who have laid the ground­ work for the future (Fig. 4.1).