Solvents are needed to perform nearly every reaction in chemistry. They are needed not only to provide the medium in which the reaction occurs, but also have important roles controlling the temperature and concentrations of reactants throughout the reaction. However, many common solvents have drawbacks that include safety, health, and environmental hazards which can be further compounded by the cost and energy intensive nature of recycling. To circumvent these issues, attention has been turned to alternative green solvents. In this dissertation, I will discuss alternative uses of poly(?-olefin) (PAO) oligomers as safer, recyclable solvents, and their use in water purification applications. PAOs can be used as safer, recyclable alternative solvents to hexane and heptane for reactions. These PAOs have very low vapor pressure, and do not contaminate water or polar organic solvents like acetonitrile or DMF when used in biphasic reactions or in extractions. Furthermore, addition of polar cosolvents to PAOs can broaden the usability of these solvent systems. Cosolvents preferentially solvate fluorophores to create microheterogeneity in PAOs the same way as in heptane. Additionally, polymer bound cosolvents affect the fluorophores in the same way as their low molecular weight counterparts and can lead to fully recyclable tunable solvent systems. PAOs, due to their high flash points, are also safer solvents than traditional alkane solvents for pyrophoric reagents like alkyllithiums, trialkylaluminums, and alkyl zinc reagents. Finally, PAOs alone or coupled with phase anchored additive can be used as recyclable alternatives to activated carbon for removing organic impurities from water. The oligomers which make up the extracting phase have virtually no solubility in water, so they do not contaminate the water which is being purified. These systems are easily recyclable by simply purging the oligomers with an inert gas.
