ABSTRACT

Microwave irradiation is a rapid means of material heating for

domestic, industrial, and medical purposes. Microwaves offer a

number of advantages over conventional heating, such as noncon-

tact heating (reduction of overheating of material surfaces), energy

transfer instead of heat transfer (penetrative radiation), material-

selective and volumetric heating, fast start-up and stopping, and,

last but not least, the reverse thermal effect. Moreover, the reduced

time of processing under microwave conditions found for a great

number of chemical reactions was the main reason that microwave

techniques became so attractive for chemists, who, in the last three

decades, have begun to apply this technique as a routine in their

everyday practice [1].