The highest priorities for the chemical industry now are process and product safety and the environment [1±5]. New technologies and methods for ªgreenº and sustainable chemistry are subjects of intense activity [6]. In that regard, the potential of microwave heating for organic synthesis attracted interest soon after the first reports [7, 8] appeared in 1986. Early reactions were performed with domestic microwave ovens and relatively primitive containers. Rate enhancement of up to three orders of magnitude was observed, but the time savings were offset by hazards such as deformation of the vessels and explosions.Thus, the major challenge confronting the early microwave chemists was to retain or enhance the benefits of the technology while concurrently avoiding the risks. Several groups concluded that microwave heating was incompatible with organic solvents and investigated solvent-free conditions including ªdryº media, usually with open vessels in domestic microwave ovens [9±12]. That area expanded rapidly, aided by the ready availability of inexpensive microwave equipment and encouraged by a diverse range of reactions awaiting exploration.Synthetic chemists desire well defined reaction conditions. Process chemists demand them. Nonuniform heating and difficulties with mixing and temperature measurement are technical constraints that initially limited the scale of microwave chemistry with ªdryº media and have not yet been overcome. Poor reproducibility also has been reported, probably resulting from differences in performance and operation of individual domestic microwave ovens [13±15]. Consequently, most, if not all, of the disclosed applications of ªdryº media are laboratory-scale preparations. However, as discussed in other chapters, this does not prevent their being interesting and useful.An alternative approach, developed by Bose [16±19] and termed ªmicrowave-induced organic reaction enhancementº (MORE) chemistry, employed polar, high-boiling solvents with open vessels in unmodified domestic microwave ovens. The solvents had dielectric properties suitable for efficient coupling of microwave energy and rapid heating to temperatures that although high, were typically some 20±30 8C
35Microwaves in Organic Synthesis. Edited by Andr Loupy