Low Melting Mixture of L-(+)-Tartaric Acid and N,N′-Dimethyl Urea: A New Arrival in the Green Organic Synthesis

Abstract

After the first report of deep eutectic mixtures by the team of Abbott in 2003, the advent of green synthesis has been progressively changing the way synthetic chemistry is thought and also taught. Since then, a plethora of efforts worldwide have been taken to stretch the ideas of sustainable as well as environmentally benign approaches to do the crucial synthetic organic transformations under operationally simple yet effective conditions. Although, till date, several green synthetic strategies for examples ultrasound, microwaves, flow as well as grindstone chemistry etc., and green reaction media (e.g. ionic liquid, water, scCO2, and so forth) have successfully been invented. But a low melting mixture of L-(+)-tartaric acid (TA) and N,N′-dimethylurea (DMU), usually plays a double and/or triple role (solvent, catalyst, and/or reagent), though still infancy but enjoys several eye-catching properties like biodegradability, recyclability, non-toxicity, good thermal stability, tunable physiochemical properties, low vapor pressure as well as reasonable prices in addition to the easy preparation with wide functional groups tolerance. To this context, keeping the importance of this novel low melting mixture in mind, we intended to reveal the advancements taken place in this wonderful area of research since its first report by the Köenig’s group in 2011 to till date. In this particular chapter, firstly we would disclose the importance of the green synthesis followed by a brief description of deep-eutectic solvents (DESs) particularly emphasizing on the role of L-(+)-TA and DMU from modern synthetic chemistry perspective.