Critical Evaluation of Published Algorithms for Determining Material Efficiency Green Metrics of Chemical Reactions and Synthesis Plans

In this paper, we evaluate seven published algorithms on determining material efficiency green metrics for individual chemical reactions and synthesis plans with respect to their implementation by professional chemists and chemical engineers. Specifically, we compare and contrast calculation outputs, visual displays, and ease of use. For a direct head-to-head comparison of algorithm performances, thereby establishing consistency, all methods are tested on the same set of chemical examples taken from Organic Syntheses and journal articles that first introduced the algorithms in the literature. Misconceptions and misinterpretations of applying materials metrics analysis when making claims of greenness for reactions and synthesis plans are also discussed.