TEAN-LOUIS LUCHE A French poet of this eentury, Pierre Mae Orlan, wrote "Adventure does not exist, it is only in the mind of he who is pursuing it, and, as soon as it is at one's finger tips, it vanishes to come back to life, far away, in a different shape, at the frontiers of imagination". This sentence could be used to define the adventure that many sonochemists experienced. Most of them did not even suspect that the "laboratory trick" they were using was the first contact with a considerable amount of science. If a personal note is allowed here, it ean be interesting to mention the part played by chance in my involvement in sonochemistry. Almost 20 years ago, we had to perform an apparently simple Grignard reaetion with n-butylmagnesium bromide and geranial, but the results were repeatedly unsatisfactory. The one-pot Barbier technique was attempted, also without success. From my studies at the University, I imagined that the failure of the latter reaction could be caused by a common phenomenon known by solid state chemists as passivation, which in some cases can be overcome by ultrasonication. By chance, an ultrasonie bath was sitting on the next beneh, borrowed to clean some equipment. We clamped our reluctant reaction mixture into the bath, the reaction proceeded vigorously, and ... the adventure started. Without knowing anything about cavitation, high energies, ete., we had an illustration of Goethe's word "Am Anfang war die Tat" (at the Beginning was the Act).

TEAN-LOUIS LUCHE A French poet of this eentury, Pierre Mae Orlan, wrote "Adventure does not exist, it is only in the mind of he who is pursuing it, and, as soon as it is at one's finger tips, it vanishes to come back to life, far away, in a different shape, at the frontiers of imagination". This sentence could be used to define the adventure that many sonochemists experienced. Most of them did not even suspect that the "laboratory trick" they were using was the first contact with a considerable amount of science. If a personal note is allowed here, it ean be interesting to mention the part played by chance in my involvement in sonochemistry. Almost 20 years ago, we had to perform an apparently simple Grignard reaetion with n-butylmagnesium bromide and geranial, but the results were repeatedly unsatisfactory. The one-pot Barbier technique was attempted, also without success. From my studies at the University, I imagined that the failure of the latter reaction could be caused by a common phenomenon known by solid state chemists as passivation, which in some cases can be overcome by ultrasonication. By chance, an ultrasonie bath was sitting on the next beneh, borrowed to clean some equipment. We clamped our reluctant reaction mixture into the bath, the reaction proceeded vigorously, and ... the adventure started. Without knowing anything about cavitation, high energies, ete., we had an illustration of Goethe's word "Am Anfang war die Tat" (at the Beginning was the Act).

Ultrasonic irradiation and the associated sonochemical and sonophysical effects are complementary techniques for driving more efficient chemical reactions and yields. Sonochemistry-the chemical effects and applications of ultrasonic waves-and sustainable (green) chemistry both aim to use less hazardous chemicals and solvents, reduce energy consumpt

Traditionally heat and light are thought as energy sources to drive a particular chemical reaction, but now ultrasound is a promising energy source for this purpose. The collapse of a bubble generates a wide range of high temperatures and pressures, and therefore, use of ultrasound has a considerable potential in chemical and allied sciences. Ultrasound-assisted reactions are green and economically viable alternatives to conventional techniques. This new volume presents a complete picture of ultrasound-assisted reactions and technologies that can be used in organic synthesis, polymer synthesis and degradation, nanomaterials, wastewater treatment, food ingredients and products, pharmaceutical applications, bioenergy applications, and more. This volume aims to shed light on the diversified applications of ultrasound and its significant role as a green chemical pathway. Sonochemistry deals with the effect of ultrasonic waves on chemical systems. It has green value because of non-hazardous acoustic radiation and is therefore duly recognized as a green chemistry by synthetic chemists as well as environmentalists. There is no direct interaction of ultrasound with molecular species, but the observed chemical and physical effects of ultrasound are due to the cavitational collapse, which produces drastic conditions of temperature and pressure locally. It induces the formation of various chemical species, which cannot be easily attained under conventional conditions. Sometimes, these species are responsible for driving towards an unusual reactivity in molecular entities. This book, Sonochemistry: An Emerging Green Technology, provides the complete development of sonochemistry, starting with an introduction and basic concepts of sonochemistry and proceeding on to different types of sonochemical reactions, instrumentation, use of ultrasound in driving particular chemical reactions, and its applications in various fields, such as polymer synthesis, decontamination of water and wastewater, preparation of nanomaterials, food technology, pharmaceutical sciences, etc. The book also briefly discusses some areas that utilize ultrasounds of different frequencies. These include food products and their processing; anaerobic digestion of waste; and medical applications such as ultrasonography, sonodynamic therapy, drug delivery, etc. Sonochemistry will be successfully used on an industrial scale in pharmaceutical drugs, polymers, nanomaterials, food technology, material science, biogas production, etc. in years to come and will be an established green chemical technology of the future.

The series Topics in Current Chemistry Collections presents critical reviews from the journal Topics in Current Chemistry organized in topical volumes. The scope of coverage is all areas of chemical science including the interfaces with related disciplines such as biology, medicine and materials science. The goal of each thematic volume is to give the non-specialist reader, whether in academia or industry, a comprehensive insight into an area where new research is emerging which is of interest to a larger scientific audience. Each review within the volume critically surveys one aspect of that topic and places it within the context of the volume as a whole. The most significant developments of the last 5 to 10 years are presented using selected examples to illustrate the principles discussed. The coverage is not intended to be an exhaustive summary of the field or include large quantities of data, but should rather be conceptual, concentrating on the methodological thinking that will allow the non-specialist reader to understand the information presented. Contributions also offer an outlook on potential future developments in the field.

The principles of Green Chemistry aim to improve the sustainability of chemical processes and reduce the generation of hazardous substances. There has been great growth in the field over the past few years and the number of research groups working in this area is still increasing. Now one of the biggest challenges is to embed the Green Chemistry ideals of safety and sustainability as standard, both in industry and academia. In order to do this, it is important to create resources that detail different applications and approaches. Green Synthetic Processes and Procedures brings together expert contributors from across a number of areas of green synthesis to cover a diverse array of subjects. Providing a thorough overview of the current green synthetic toolbox, from biocatalysis to sonochemistry, this book is a useful resource for any chemist wishing to design cleaner and safer processes.

This book was written by authors in the field of ultrasound-assited synthesis and their applications. Among others, some of the topics covered are: ultrasound-assited synthesis of metal/metal oxide nanoparticles, graphene nanosheets, and ultrasound applications. In this book, authors focused on recent studies, applications, and new technological developments on fundamental properties of the ultrasound process.

The effects of heat and light on chemical reactions have long been known and un derstood. Ultrasound has been known to promote chemical reactions for the past 60 years, but despite this, it did not attract the attention of synthetic chemists until recently. This arose historically from early studies which concentrated almost exclu sively on reactions in aqueous media and was also, in some measure, due to the availability of suitable technology. Since the early 1980s a plethora of literature has appeared of direct interest to synthetic chemists and the field has been developing rapidly. The aim of this book is to bring the background of this fascinating field to the atten tion of a wider audience. It explores the literature to date and attempts to indicate other areas in which ultrasound may be exploited. It also hopes to explode some of the myths surrounding this area which have hitherto been regarded by the synthetic community as a bit of a black art! Existing books and reviews have tended to concentrate on the physics of sonochem istry and to catalogue the instances in which ultrasound has proved useful in tack ling synthetic problems. Our aim has been to stress the relevance of this technique to synthetic chemists and we have included a section which deals with the practical aspects of carrying out these reactions.

Sonochemistry and the Acoustic Bubble provides an introduction to the way ultrasound acts on bubbles in a liquid to cause bubbles to collapse violently, leading to localized 'hot spots' in the liquid with temperatures of 5000° celcius and under pressures of several hundred atmospheres. These extreme conditions produce events such as the emission of light, sonoluminescence, with a lifetime of less than a nanosecond, and free radicals that can initiate a host of varied chemical reactions (sonochemistry) in the liquid, all at room temperature. The physics and chemistry behind the phenomena are simply, but comprehensively presented. In addition, potential industrial and medical applications of acoustic cavitation and its chemical effects are described and reviewed. The book is suitable for graduate students working with ultrasound, and for potential chemists and chemical engineers wanting to understand the basics of how ultrasound acts in a liquid to cause chemical and physical effects.

There is an increasing interest in the exploitation of power ultrasound in chemistry and processing (sonochemistry). This text was written as a result of the many requests from potential sonochemists for a practical introduction to the topic.