From grimoire
Evaluates chemical syntheses and processes using the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry to minimize waste, hazards, energy use, and environmental impact.
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/grimoire:apply-green-chemistry-principlesThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
Evaluate and redesign chemical processes using the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry to minimize waste generation, reduce hazardous reagent use, improve energy efficiency, and build in safety from the molecular design stage.
Evaluate and redesign chemical processes using the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry to minimize waste generation, reduce hazardous reagent use, improve energy efficiency, and build in safety from the molecular design stage.
Adopted by: ACS (American Chemical Society), RSC (Royal Society of Chemistry), EPA Green Chemistry Program, and the pharmaceutical industry (via ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable) have all institutionalized green chemistry metrics. REACH (EU chemicals regulation) and EPA TSCA reform incentivize green chemistry by requiring hazard assessment for new chemicals. Companies including Pfizer, GSK, and AstraZeneca use the E factor and PMI (Process Mass Intensity) as mandatory KPIs for process chemistry. Impact: Sheldon (2007) quantified waste in chemical industries: fine chemicals generate 5-50 kg waste per kg product; pharmaceuticals generate 25-100+ kg/kg. The E factor (waste kg per product kg) is the most-cited green chemistry metric. Atom economy (Trost, 1991) — the percentage of reagent mass incorporated into the product — mathematically identifies inherently wasteful reactions before any experiment is run. Green chemistry approaches to Ibuprofen synthesis (Hoechst process) reduced E factor from 26 to 1.4, saving thousands of tons of waste annually at industrial scale.
Atom economy (AE) identifies inherently wasteful reactions:
Atom Economy (%) = (MW of desired product / sum of MW of all reagents) × 100
Example: Grignard addition of CH₃MgBr to formaldehyde vs. Wacker oxidation of ethylene:
Reactions with high atom economy: additions > substitutions > eliminations (byproducts leave waste stream).
For process evaluation:
E factor = total waste (kg) / product (kg)
PMI (Process Mass Intensity) = total mass in (kg) / product (kg)
The 12 Principles, prioritized by impact:
Prevention (highest leverage):
Reagent and solvent selection: 4. Design safer chemicals — minimize toxicity while maintaining function 5. Safer solvents — use aqueous or supercritical CO₂; avoid chlorinated solvents (DCM, chloroform), DMF, NMP 6. Design for energy efficiency — prefer ambient temperature and pressure; avoid excess heating
Catalysis and renewable feedstocks: 7. Use renewable feedstocks — bio-based starting materials where possible 8. Reduce derivatives — avoid protecting groups where possible (each protection step = 2 extra reactions with waste) 9. Catalysis — use catalytic reagents rather than stoichiometric ones (Pd, Fe, biocatalysts)
Degradation and monitoring: 10. Design for degradation — products should not persist in the environment 11. Real-time monitoring — in-line analytics (FTIR, Raman) prevent runaway reactions and allow process control 12. Accident prevention — minimize potential for chemical accidents (explosion, fire, release)
Use CHEM21, GSK, or Sanofi solvent selection guides:
Common substitutions:
For publication and process development reports, include:
npx claudepluginhub jeffreytse/grimoire --plugin grimoirePlans multi-step chemical syntheses via retrosynthetic analysis, working backward from target molecule to available starting materials.
Reasons from first principles to predict reaction products, analyze mechanisms, and interpret NMR/IR/MS spectra for organic synthesis problems.
Applies medicinal-chemistry filters (Lipinski, Veber, PAINS, structural alerts) and molecular complexity metrics for compound library triage and drug-likeness assessment.