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Environmental Sustainability: implications and limitations to Green Chemistry

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Abstract

This study discusses the relationship between Green Chemistry and Environmental Sustainability as expressed in textbooks and articles on Green Chemistry authored by their promoters. It was found that although the Brundtland concept of Sustainable Development/Sustainability has been mentioned often by green chemists, a full analysis of that relationship was almost never attempted. In particular, green chemists have paid scarce attention to the importance of The Second Law of thermodynamics on Environmental Sustainability and the consequences of the limitations it imposes on Green Chemistry, which are discussed in this paper.

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Acknowledgments

To CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Brasil), as well as CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Brasil) and FCT (Fundação de Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal), for the award of a collaboration project on “Chemical Education under the Perspective of Green Chemistry and Environmental Sustainability”, project nr 289/11 (Brasil) and 151/11 (Portugal).

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  1. Departamento de Metodologia de Ensino and Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação Científica e Tecnológica, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, SC, Brazil

    Carlos Alberto Marques

  2. Departamento de Química, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, R. Campo Alegre, 687, 4169-007, Porto, Portugal

    Adélio A. S. C. Machado

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  1. Carlos Alberto Marques
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Correspondence to Adélio A. S. C. Machado.

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Marques, C.A., Machado, A.A.S.C. Environmental Sustainability: implications and limitations to Green Chemistry. Found Chem 16, 125–147 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10698-013-9189-x

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