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Alternatives to Dichloromethane (DCM) for Teaching Laboratories

Alternatives to Dichloromethane (DCM) for Teaching Laboratories
Contributors
David Vosburg
Donald A. Strauss Professor of Chemistry | Harvey Mudd College
Kyle Grice
DePaul University
Angela Milo
Harvey Mudd College
photo of dichloromethane (DCM) bottle with a big X on it
Summary
This is a Commentary published as open-access in the Journal of Chemical Education in 2025 by Angela Milo, Lijinghan Chen, Kyle Grice, and David Vosburg. It explains why teaching laboratory instructors may wish to avoid using the toxic and regulated solvent dichloromethane (DCM) and offers suggestions for how to eliminate its use and identify alternative solvents for reactions, extractions, and chromatography.

Full citation: Milo, A., Chen, L., Grice, K. A., & Vosburg, D. A. (2025). Alternatives to dichloromethane for teaching laboratories. Journal of Chemical Education, 102(6), 2261–2267. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.5c00106
Keyword Tags
Greener Solvents
Solvent Selection
Toxicity
Separation
Chromatography
Halogenated Organic Compounds
Teaching-Undergraduate
Laboratory
File (PDF, PPT, image, etc)
milo-et-al-2025-alternatives-to-dichloromethane-for-teaching-laboratories.pdf
Link to external
Alternatives to Dichloromethane for Teaching Laboratories
Learning Goals/Student Objectives
This resource is primarily for instructors rather than direct use with students, but the main objectives are to explain the "DCM problem" and offer potential solutions for instructors of undergraduate labs.
Object Type
Journal articles
Audience
Introductory Undergraduate
Upper/Advanced Undergraduate
Common pedagogies covered
Hands-on learning
Green Chemistry Principles
Waste Prevention
Less Hazardous Chemical Syntheses
Safer Solvents and Auxiliaries
Real-Time Pollution Prevention
Safer Chemistry for Accident Prevention
U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Good Health and Well-Being
Clean Water and Sanitation
Safety Precautions, Hazards, and Risk Assessment
N/A
Teacher Recommendations or Piloting Data (if available)
N/A

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Submitted by

David Vosburg
Published on
Moderation state
Published
Collection
Methylene Chloride (DCM) Replacements
Other notes/information
This could be posted as a standard resource and also in the curated collection "Methylene Chloride (DCM) Replacements".
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.