40 years of patent data reveals an overreliance on hazardous solvents

An analysis of the chemical processes described in four decades’ worth of US patents appears to show that chemists are failing to reduce their use of hazardous solvents. This is despite the growing awareness of the safety and sustainability issues that many solvents pose and the availability of safer and greener alternatives. The researchers behind the work warn that this overreliance on hazardous solvents in historic datasets could bias AI-based synthesis planning tools that are trained on them, which could in turn perpetuate hazardous practices rather than promoting sustainability.