Skip to main content

Efficiency Based Metrics


Reproduced Content

The video on this page reproduces content from L. Summerton and A. ConstandinouBeyond Mass-based Metrics: Evaluating the Greenness of Your Reaction, in Green and Sustainable Medicinal Chemistry: Methods, Tools and Strategies for the 21st Century Pharmaceutical Industry, L. Summerton, H. F. Sneddon, L. C. Jones and J. H. Clark, Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, UK, 2016, ch. 4, pp. 41-53..

It is copyright to the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and is reproduced here with their express permission. If you wish to reproduce it elsewhere you must obtain similar permission from the RSC.

In this video, Louise Summerton at the Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence, University of York describes commonly used efficiency based metrics, typically based on mass inputs/outputs, that can be readily calculated and interpreted to give an indication of the greenness of a reaction.


Direct amidation exercise (part 1)

Here is an an example reaction (Scheme 1) and a series of questions (see below) to provide you with some practice of calculating efficiency based metrics. You will find the information you need to make these calculations in the accompanying data sheet.

After completing the exercise, you can check your answers against the answer sheet.

Scheme 1: Reproduced from Starkov and Shepherd [1] with permission from the Royal Society of Chemistry

  1. P. Starkov and T. D. Sheppard, Borate esters as convenient reagents for direct amidation of carboxylic acids and transamidation of primary amides, Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry, 2011, 9, 1320-1323.