How environmentally friendly is the analytical process? A paradigm overview of ten greenness assessment metric approaches for analytical methods

Green chemistry principles have been incorporated into various disciplines of chemistry, including analytical chemistry, as an ongoing awareness and interest in the state of the ecosystem. The negative impacts of analytical procedures may cause environmental damage and pose major threats to operators. Therefore, it is critical to consider the consequences and the implications of researchers' and users' activities of analytical techniques. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the history of Green Analytical Chemistry (GAC) and the existing greenness assessment metric tools, including criteria, concepts, principles, fundamentals, strengths, and weaknesses (merits and demerits). Additionally, a comparison between the metric tools is given, and their relevance in various analytical approaches is explored. For the first time, ten greenness appraisal approaches are thoroughly investigated, conveyed, and implemented. These ten approaches comprise the following: National Environmental Method Index (NEMI), Modified NEMI, analytical Eco-Scale, HPLC-EAT (Environmental Assessment Tool), Analytical Method Volume Intensity (AMVI), Green Analytical Procedure Index (GAPI), Complementary Green Analytical Procedure Index (ComplexGAPI), Analytical Method Greenness Score (AMGS) Calculator, Analytical Greenness (AGREE), Analytical Greenness for sample preparation (AGREEprep), and other assessment tools. Furthermore, the applicability of the discussed assessment tools is examined by evaluating some research articles for determining pharmaceutical residues in water as a case study. With this review, researchers' knowledge to comprehend and remain fully up-to-date with the current greenness evaluation tools is expanded, and selecting and applying the most appropriate approach through a realistic appraisal and comparison of the tools are realized.