Microwave-synthesized polysaccharide copolymers

Abstract

Known since the end of the nineteenth century, microwave radiation (Zlotorzynski 1995) was used to carry out a chemical reaction for the first time in the 1960s, but in these experiments, irradiation was used for the production of electric arc discharge only in which some organic transformation has been carried out (Streitwieser and Ward 1962). The very first microwave synthesis, in full sense of the word, was performed in the 1980s of the last century, when Gedye et al. (1986) conducted the microwave-assisted hydrolysis of amides in a substantially shorter time than the corresponding reaction at conventional conditions. A few years later, in 1992, Mingos showed the possibility of heating liquid beyond their boiling points at microwave conditions (Mingos and Baghurst 1991). The experiment was a milestone in the development of microwave synthesis. Since then a sharp increase is microwave synthesis in organic synthesis observed in interest in many parts of chemistry of both low and high molecular compounds.