- "Students are given the opportunity to assess chemical products and processes and design greener alternatives when appropriate."
- "Students understand and can evaluate the environmental, social, and health impacts of a chemical product over the life cycle of the product, from synthesis to disposal."
At the highest level of the ACS guidelines, students are expected to have a deeper understanding of and critical thinking skills around developing and designing greener chemical products and processes. This can include the various environmental, social and health aspects of a chemical product, in particular as it pertains to life cycle analysis.
GCTLC Library
Below are resources from the GCTLC library that are tagged with any of the following Green Chemistry Principles:
- #3 (Less Hazardous Chemical Syntheses)
- #4 (Design Safer Chemicals)
- #5 (Safer Solvents and Auxiliaries)
OR have been tagged with keyword "Life Cycle Assessment".
The variety of resources below should provide educators with numerous options to help tailor their lectures and courses with more green and sustainable chemistry content. However, if you have additional suggestions for resources, you can always submit them for inclusion in the GCTLC library, or you can post them in the forum "Green Chemistry Resources for Addressing the ACS Guidelines" on the GCTLC.
Solvent-Free Wittig Reaction: A Green Organic Chemistry Laboratory Experiment
Carbon-carbon bond formation is arguably one of the most crucial transformations in organic chemistry. In this experiment, students will simultaneously transform carbonyl groups into olefins via the Wittig Reaction while learning principles of green chemistry. While the Wittig is not normally known for its "greenness" (due to its poor atom economy), this lab seeks to bolster the reaction's green ...
Some Exercises Reflecting Green Chemistry Concepts
This series of exercises enforces green chemistry concepts while also introducing students to the balancing of equations and stoichiometry. The concept of conservation will likely already be familiar to most students, but these drills give students a chance to analyze different synthetic pathways and decide which path is the most green. The three target compounds given in this article are aluminum ...
Soybean carbohydrate as fermentation feedstock for production of biofuels and value-added chemicals
Overview: This comprehensive review explores how carbohydrate-rich byproducts from soybean processing—such as soybean hulls, meal, molasses, and okara—can be repurposed as fermentation feedstocks to produce biofuels, enzymes, and specialty chemicals. The paper emphasizes the potential of these underutilized materials in building a sustainable, soy-based biorefinery platform.
Citation: Brentin, R ...
Stereochemistry: Introduction to Chirality
This module has been designed to introduce second-year organic chemistry students to the concepts of stereochemistry through the lens of the World Health Organization’s Model List of Essential Medicines. PowerPoint slide decks, homework assignments, instructor notes, activities, and a summative assessment are included in this module. Students should be able to represent and classify stereoisomeric ...
Stoichiometry: Reaction of Iron with Copper(II) Sulfate
Students use stoichiometry to deduce the appropriate equation for the reaction between solid metallic iron and a solution of copper(II) sulfate. This reaction produces solid metallic copper, which is precipitated as a finely divided red powder in a single displacement reaction. During the reaction, atoms from a solid metal exchange with different metal ions in a salt solution. The iron produced ...
Styrene-Free Soybean Oil Thermoset Composites Reinforced by Hybrid Fibers from Recycled and Natural Resources
This study introduces a sustainable, styrene-free thermoset composite derived from acrylated epoxidized soybean oil (AESO) and reinforced with hybrid fibers sourced from recycled PET, bamboo, polyester, and ethylene-propylene (ES) fibers. To replace toxic and volatile styrene, the researchers synthesized glyceryl trimethacrylate (GTMA) from biodiesel-derived glycerol as a bio-based reactive ...
Sustainable Chemistry Definition
The Expert Committee on Sustainable Chemistry (ECOSChem)—representing a broad set of constituencies has developed a clear and actionable definition for "sustainable chemistry" along with a set of criteria that may be adopted and adapted to different constituencies and decision contexts, including in policy, education, corporate, and investment decision making.
Synthesis of Naphthyl Butyl Ether
This is a laboratory experiment for Organic Chemistry for a greener SN2 reaction. The reaction uses a greener solvent and produces a benign product. It was published in J. Chem. Ed.
A Simple SN2 Reaction for the Undergraduate Organic Laboratory
John J. Esteb, John R. Magers, LuAnne McNulty, Paul Morgan, and Anne M. Wilson
Journal of Chemical Education 2009 86 (7), 850
DOI: 10.1021/ed086p850
Teaching green chemistry, sustainability ethics, and toxicity using nail polish removers
Ingredients in nail polish and polish removers are the primary causes of occupational health problems manicurists frequently face. Several key concepts of green chemistry can be taught to an undergraduate audience using nail polish removers as a case study. Students generated green profiles of various nail polish removers available on the market based on the 12 principles of green chemistry. This ...
The Discovery-Oriented Approach to Organic Chemistry. 7. Rearrangement of trans-Stilbene Oxide with Bismuth Trifluoromethanesulfonate and Other Metal Triflates. A Microscale Green Organic Chemistry Laboratory Experiment
It is well known that epoxides can undergo rearrangement to yield carbonyl compounds in the presence of a Lewis acid catalyst. Classically these catalysts have included a wide variety of compounds some of which are hazardous and harmful. The impetus for this experiment came from a previous lab taught by the authors in which toxic, corrosive boron trifluoride etherate was used to catalyze the ...