Lipids as versatile solvents for chemical synthesis

Abstract

Development of safe, renewable, cheap and versatile solvents is a longstanding challenge in chemistry. We show here that vegetable oils and related systems can become prominent solvents for organic synthesis. Suzuki–Miyaura, Hiyama, Stille, Sonogashira and Heck cross-couplings proceed with quantitative yields in a range of vegetable oils, fish oil, butter and waxes used as solvents. Appropriate methodologies for high-throughput screening and sustainable isolation techniques applicable for vegetable oils and related lipids are presented.