ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the importance of selecting reactions that have a high potential of meeting well-defined “green” standards in a systematic way. The more polar aldehyde reacts with the acid catalyst in the aqueous phase for the condensation reaction and the less polar aldehyde reacts with the proline catalyst in the organic phase for the conjugate addition reaction. Green reactions are characterized as having atom economy values greater than or equal to 0.618, or 61.8%. The assessment of greenness of a chemical reaction or synthesis plan based on kernel metrics determined solely from balanced chemical equations under stoichiometric conditions such as atom economy, reaction yield, kernel reaction mass efficiency, kernel process mass intensity, and kernel E-factor. The probability of achieving intrinsic greenness refers to the probability of satisfying a threshold target value of kernel reaction mass efficiency based on boundary conditions for both atom economy and reaction yield for a given chemical reaction.
