Chapter Fourteen - Sonomechanochemistry

The present chapter will discuss, to some extent, the mechanical action and effects of sound waves and their specific applications in chemistry and sensing. To our knowledge the term sonomechanochemistry has not yet been coined, although we advocate its usage (without any hyphen), thus putting emphasis on the role of sound toward mechanochemical applications, rather than the alternative mechanosonochemistry. Leaving this semantic consideration aside, sound is essentially mechanical energy, which can be generated within a broad range of frequencies and intensities (power ultrasound in particular) to efficiently achieve physicochemical transformations, often unusual by other activation methods. Chemical and mechanical effects, especially in the presence of cavitation, cannot easily be disentangled, albeit we show specific domains where the mechanical action is prevalent. Advantages and salient results emerge from some applications, which we shall concentrate on, namely, polymer mechanochemistry, crystallization, and manipulation of soft matter and supramolecular aggregation.