Switching from organic solvents to water at an industrial scale

The paper presents the most recent advances in applications of alternative medium to replace polar aprotic solvents such as dimethylformamide (DMF), dimethylacetamide (DMAc) or N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP). Focus is made on the use of nonionic designer surfactant (e.g. TPGS-750-M) in water instead of traditional organic solvents. Much attention is given to its applications to several commonly used transformations in active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) synthesis, such as amidation reactions, Suzuki-Miyaura cross-couplings, nitro group reductions, and aromatic nucleophilic substitutions. Case studies of successful uses to attain improved green processes are included. Future directions and most recent results using tailor-made reagents suitable for micellar environments are given.