Mechanochemistry and Emerging Technologies for Sustainable Chemical Manufacturing

Evelina Colacino received her double Ph.D. (with European Label) in 2002 at the University of Montpellier II (France), and at the University of Calabria (Italy). She was appointed Research Fellow at the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium, 2003), working on the preparation of new hydantoin scaffolds as antibacterial agents. Research Scientist at Sigma- Tau Pharmaceuticals (Italy, 2004), Post-Doctoral Fellow University of Montpellier II, (France, until 2007), she was hired as Assistant Professor in 2008. Associate Professor of Organic and Green Chemistry since 2013, at the University of Montpellier, France, her main research activities concern the development of eco-friendly methodologies for the preparation of biomolecules, heterocyclic compounds and hybrid materials by mechanochemistry, with a main focus on Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (medicinal mechanochemistry). She also investigates sustainable approaches to homogeneous or heterogeneous metal-catalysed processes by combining enabling technologies with non-conventional media. She is also promoter of sustainability in Higher Education by integrating green chemistry at undergraduate level in organic chemistry courses, teaching laboratories and across the sub-disciplines of chemistry, with a special focus on the fundamentals and the practice of mechanochemistry. She is member of the Advisory Board of the Green Chemistry Commitment (GCC, www.beyondbenign.org) and the International Mechanochemical Association (IMA, http://imamechanochemical.com). She leads the European Programme COST Action CA18112 (MechSustInd, 2019-2023) – ‘Mechanochemistry for Sustainable Industry (www.mechsustind.eu and https://www.cost.eu) and the EU Horizon Project IMPACTIVE (Innovative Mechanochemical Processes to synthesise green ACTIVE pharmaceutical ingredients, 2022-2026). Felipe García is originally from the coastal town of Gijon (Spain) and gained both his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Chemistry at the local Oviedo University (Spain). In 2001, he moved to the University of Cambridge (UK) to carry out his graduate studies on main group imides and phosphides as a Cambridge European Trust and Newton Trust Scholar under the supervision of Prof. Dominic Wright. He then gained Junior Research Fellowship at Wolfson College (UK, 2005) and was appointed College Lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry at Newnham and Trinity Colleges (UK, 2006). In March 2011, he moved to Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) as Assistant Professor, where he developed different aspects of main group chemistry. In 2022, he moved back to his alma mater (i.e., University of Oviedo) as a Margarita Salas Senior researcher (funded by FICYT). The Margarita Salas Senior programme is a new scheme from the Foundation for the Promotion in Asturias of Applied Scientific Research and Technology (FICYT) to attract highly qualified well-established researchers to R&D and higher education institutions in the Principality of Asturias (Spain). In late 2023, he will move to Monash University in Australia continue his research career. Felipe has published over 90 papers on Main Group Chemistry and maintains a strong interest in the synthesis of novel compounds for industrial and biological applications.

Introduction – overview of book – objective of book: Scaling up sustainable synthesis by mechanochemistry

Mechanochemistry: a brief historical introduction

Mechanochemistry – A general introduction : Mechanochemical Based Technologies






In situ monitoring of mechanochemical Ball-Milling Reactions



The Thermodynamics and Kinetics of mechanochemical reactions: a computational approach



The Thermodymanics and Kinetics of Mechanochemical Reactions: An experimental Approach



Life cycle assessment: A tool for sustainability evaluation of emerging mechanochemical process engineering



Intellectual properties in mechanochemistry

Solvent-free Sustainable Technologies at large scale






Mechanochemistry at scale: the ultimate process intensification and beyond including continuous mechanochemical synthesis by twin screw extrusion Identification of important parameters moving forward



Batch mechanochemical synthesis – scale-up



Acoustic synthesis (solvent-free) and Resonant Acoustic Mixing (RAM)

Case studies/perspective






Case Study: Sustainable large scale manufacturing of fine chemicals, APIs and biologically active compounds



Case Study - Siebtechnik Company (DE) and eccentric mills



Scalable solutions for continuous manufacturing by mechanochemical-assisted synthesis

Reduced Solvent Sustainable Technologies






Large Scale Continuous Flow Chemistry



Sustainable chemical manufacture in water – An industrial point of view

Annex - Terminology and Nomenclature in Mechanochemistry