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Many chemical processes are designed to be as efficient as possible.
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There are many reasons why this is done.
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Firstly, it is very costly if a chemical synthesis is not designed to be efficient.
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In industry, chemists are aiming to modify or develop reactions so that they'll proceed at ambient temperature and pressure.
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This is because it costs energy to produce both high and very low temperatures.
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The 2005 Nobel Prize for chemistry was jointly awarded to a group of chemists
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who developed an energy efficient catalyst for a high atom economy reaction so that it was able to proceed at standard ambient temperature and pressure.
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Recall that a high atom economy reaction is one that uses all the atoms in the reactant to create the product or products.
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The reaction is called a metathesis method and is responsible for the synthesis of many polymers with special properties,
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additives to polymers, and fuels, and biologically active compounds such as insect pheromones, herbicides, and drugs.