Comparing the Effects of Solvents on Organic Thermochemical Reactions

Abstract For centuries, it appeared that the solvent was essential for conducting chemical experiments. It is widely accepted that solvent enables reactions to occur more efficiently. However, can solvents really enhance the efficiency of chemical reactions? To address this inquiry, we conducted this study. We examined 22 classic organic chemical reactions across 7 major categories. All reactions were divided into two parallel groups. In these two groups of experiments, except for the presence or absence of solvents, all other conditions were kept identical. The 537 data show that the yield fluctuation range in these two cases is: −13% to 19%. Based on these datasets, we draw the following conclusions: 1) The presence or absence of an excess solvent exerts minimal influence on the efficiency of most organic thermochemical reactions. 2) When one of the reactants is in liquid or gaseous state, the difference in reaction efficiency between completely solvent-free and solvent conditions is not significant. 3) When the reaction rate is relatively slow under conditions where all reactants are solid and there is no solvent at all, adding one to several equivalent amount of solvent can be comparable to the efficiency under conditions of a large amount of solvent.