Chemical transformations, which refer simply to the conversion of a substrate to a product, have occurred naturally for millions of years and performed by chemists for hundreds of years. One way to accomplish chemical transformation in the past has been through chemical separation, which is any mass transfer process that contains a mixture of substances into two or more distinct product mixtures. The most well-known and widely used method of chemical separation, Chromatography, has been used by researchers to identify and isolate components in mixtures since its initial discovery by Tswett, who outlined the principles in 1903, and since Chromatography’s first practical application by researchers Lederer and Kuhn in 1931, when they used liquid chromatography to identify and isolate the components of carotenoids. Researcher used components isolated via chromatography for a large range of practical purposes including using chromatography to monitor the amount of chemical pollutants in water and soil samples as a result of pollution.  In recent years, researchers have had success in using high powered microwave assisted organic chemistry, for chemical transformation and separation.  Pioneered by the publications of R. Gedye and R.J. Giguere (1986), the authors described several reactions that were carried out in domestic microwave ovens finding that the reactions proceed faster and gives higher yield comparing with conventional thermal heating. The realization the microwave assisted chemistry could allow for cleaner and more efficient chemical synthesis led to scientists attempting to use microwave synthesis to possible pollution control technologies. One such technology, currently being initiated by scientist form the University of York, involves the use of high powered microwaves in transforming the tough cellulose molecules of plant matter into bio-degradable plastic polymer

 

Sources:

http://www.ibb.ntou.edu.tw/wwwroot/teacher_system/file/information/a36218_Ch20_Chemical_Separation.pdf

http://ull.chemistry.uakron.edu/chemsep/1-introduction.pdf

http://www.umich.edu/~orgolab/Chroma/chromahis.html

http://microwavetec.com/mwchem.php