Welcome to the GCTLC Library. Use the search and filter options below to find green chemistry education resources and curriculum materials from community members from across the world. You can also submit a new resource to the library. For information for authors and reviewers, please consult the Guidelines for Submission and Review of Learning Objects.
Green Chemistry University Course: Lecture 24 – Designing Future Products with Reduced Toxicity
This lecture continues to explore different approaches to hazard minimization by changing molecular design. After several practical examples and a case study, students will learn about current methods that scientists use to assess chemical toxicity on a large scale. In vivo and In vitro studies are discussed.
This course was developed and authored by:
Philip Coish
Kimberly Chapman
Paul Anastas ...
Green Chemistry University Course: Lecture 25 and 26: Safe Chemical Design Game
The last two lectures, lecture 25 and lecture 26, allow students to explore safer chemical design and ADME through an educational online computer game. The game encourages students to think like professional chemical designers and to develop a chemical product with respect to function and improved human and environmental health. The developed worksheet leads students through the game challenges ...
Green Chemistry University Course: Lecture 27 – Exam 3: Final Exam
Exam 3: Final Exam and Exam 3: Final Exam Answer Key
This course was developed and authored by:
Philip Coish
Kimberly Chapman
Paul Anastas
Seon Augusto Ferreira
Karolina Mellor
Amy Cannon
Derrick Ward
Green Chemistry: Sustainability at the Atom Scale. Frontiers for Young Minds Article
Frontiers for Young Minds is an outreach journal aimed at and reviewed by 8-15 year olds, so has a very different demographic to other academic journals and reviewing process responding to young people's opinions on the draft article. This article presents the Principles of Green Chemistry and the concept of Life Cycle Assessment in an accessible format for a younger audience.
Authors: Jessica ...
Green Goggles: Designing and Teaching a General Chemistry Course to Nonmajors Using a Green Chemistry Approach
A novel course using green chemistry as the context to teach general chemistry fundamentals was designed, implemented and is described here. The course design included an active learning approach, with major course graded components including a weekly blog entry, exams, and a semester project that was disseminated by wiki and a public symposium. Results include self-reports of gains in knowledge ...
Greener Alternative to Qualitative Analysis for Cations without H2S and Other Sulfur-Containing Compounds
Qualitative analysis of inorganic salts and mixtures is a common component of high school, undergraduate, and graduate-level curricula. The hydrogen sulfide scheme given by Fresenius is a widely accepted scheme used for studying Le Chatelier's Principle, the common-ion effect, and solubility products. However, H2S is deadly even at low air concentrations, can cause permanent physiological damage ...
Greener synthesis of medicinally relevant amides
This is an undergraduate organic laboratory experiment for the preparation of either of two medicinally relevant amide products from a biorenewable carboxylic acid and an amine using a green, non-sensitizing coupling reagent combination in acetonitrile. The procedure could also be adapted for different acids and amines, particularly when the amide products can be readily precipitated and filtered ...
Greening the Blue Bottle
The Blue Bottle demonstration, involving the colorful redox cycling of methylene blue, is often used to introduce and illustrate the scientific method to younger science students and to study reaction rates and mechanisms with advanced high school and university students. This paper describes a greener blue bottle demonstration that reduces the total amount of material used in the demonstration ...
Greening the Clock Reaction: Rates of Reaction Lab
The amount of each reactant present and the temperature of the reaction vessel typically influence the rate at which a chemical reaction proceeds. And, typically, this relationship between the reaction rate and reagent concentration takes a simple form known as the rate law: rate = k[A]x[B]y
Clock reactions can be performed with a variety of reagents, including ...
Greening Wittig Reactions: Solvent-Free Synthesis of Ethyl trans-Cinnamate and trans-3- (9-Anthryl)-2-Propenoic Acid Ethyl Ester
While the Wittig reaction is often used as an example of a reaction with poor atom economy, it is still important to recognize that any reaction, the Wittig included, can be made greener. This solvent-less Witting not only eliminates the hazards associated with traditional solvents but also uses reagents with little or no known toxicity. This is particularly notable given the relatively high ...
Grow Vegan Kombucha Leather
Do you love the look and feel of leather? Many luxury items like handbags, belts, wallets, and coats are made from leather. What if you could make your own vegan leather in a few weeks? Could it be a greener, more sustainable option than cowhide leather? In this science project, you will grow your own vegan leather from kombucha and see how different growing conditions affect the resulting leather ...
How Eco-Friendly is Your Sunscreen?
Imagine a wonderful summer day at the beach. You play in the sand, swim in the ocean—and, of course, put a lot of sunscreen on. The sunscreen protects your skin from harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Special ingredients absorb or reflect the UV rays so they do not harm your skin. Different types of sunscreen have different types of ingredients, and some of them can be harmful to the environment ...
How Ecovative are You?: Mushroom Materials Lab
Styrofoam is a popular packaging material that is non-biodegradable and takes centuries to decompose. Ecovative has developed a mushroom-based alternative that can be customized to any shape and used for packaging and insulation. Iron concentration in the mixture prevents the growth of spores, making it safe for industrial use. The project can be completed in 7 to 12 days and is split into three ...
How Green Chemistry Can Help Advance Environmental Justice
Hear how advances in green chemistry can help address environmental justice challenges and how engaging with affected communities can help green chemistry experts more effectively target their solutions.
My guest is Sederra Ross of the American Chemical Society's Green Chemistry Institute.
This episode includes 1) a 2-minute preview video, 2) a 45-minute video of the full interview... and 3) ...
Incorporating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Awareness and Knowledge in a First-Semester Organic Chemistry Classroom
Embracing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the chemistry classroom is crucial for creating an inclusive learning environment that will have a positive effect on student’s learning, success, and hence, retention in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). As such, a number of DEI approaches have recently been identified to foster awareness and appreciation of DEI into ...
Incorporating Sustainability and Life Cycle Assessment into First-Year Inorganic Chemistry Major Laboratories
This is a J Chem Ed article that outlines how we redesigned an Inorganic Chemistry laboratory course to create a consistent and focused approach to green chemistry, leading to an increase in a research mindset.
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00281
Authors: Marta Guron, Jared Paul, Margaret Roeder
Industrial Chemistry
This module is part of a collection of nine green chemistry teaching modules developed in the early 2000s by a team of faculty (Donna Narsavage-Heald, Trudy Dickneider, David Marx, Timothy Foley, Joan Wasilewski) led by Michael Cann at the University of Scranton and has been migrated to the GCTLC. The subjects of the modules are based on winners of the Green Chemistry Challenge Awards. The modules ...
Infographic and Discussion on Application to Organic Chemistry I Lecture
In Organic Chemistry I, many connections can be made to the new reactions and content students learn. As such, in the lecture, students see weekly a connection to Green Chemistry Principles modeled in preparation for an infographic activity on one green principle. In this activity, students work in small groups of 2-3 students to create an infographic on one slide (ppt) and present it to their ...
Infographics profiling green chemists
This assignment is used in a 4th year/senior undergraduate course to encourage students to engage with the broader green chemistry community and learn about a green chemist of their choosing. This assignment also has them re-engage with software/websites that they have used previously such as Web of Science and SciFinder to find journal articles, and ChemDraw to prepare reaction schemes. The ...
Inorganic Chemistry
This module is part of a collection of nine green chemistry teaching modules developed in the early 2000s by a team of faculty (Donna Narsavage-Heald, Trudy Dickneider, David Marx, Timothy Foley, Joan Wasilewski) led by Michael Cann at the University of Scranton and has been migrated to the GCTLC. The subjects of the modules are based on winners of the Green Chemistry Challenge Awards. The modules ...
Integrating Green and Sustainable Chemistry into Undergraduate Teaching Laboratories: Closing and Assessing the Loop on the Basis of a Citrus Biorefinery Approach for the Biocircular Economy in Brazil
One of the keys to achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in education is to introduce novel pedagogical strategies into university curricula in order to promote an enhanced acute sense of sustainability in future professionals, teachers, and decision-makers. This paper aims at analyzing the effectiveness of including green and sustainable chemistry on the basis of a ...
Integrating Simple Environmental Impact-Based Metrics into the Undergraduate Curriculum
The most important learning objective in green chemistry education is the ability to identify the synthesis, process, or chemical that is least environmentally harmful. Existing metrics fall short for different reasons. Mass-based metrics fail to assess environmental harm, while life cycle assessment (LCA) is much too complex to insert into the existing curriculum without displacing a significant ...
Integrating Social Justice into the Chemistry Curriculum: Setting the Ethical Foundation for Future Scientists
Incorporation of social justice into chemistry curricula remains rare despite the recent increase in awareness of equity issues. Social justice topics and pedagogy offer a way towards developing culturally-responsive, inclusive curricula that acknowledges the social facets of scientific knowledge. This chapter describes the creation of an in-depth social justice project that prompted students to ...
Intellectual Ecology by Dr. John Warner
Dr. John Warner speaks at a Bioneers conference in 2014 on "Intellectual Ecology". This is a great inspirational introductory video for understanding Green Chemistry.
Interdisciplinary Gamified Teaching of Critical Metals
A guide to several tools created by a group of people at the Center for Sustainable Separations of Metals to gamify and introduce the ideas of critical metals.
Maxwell H. Furigay (a), Nikhil S. Chellam (b), Marta Guron (a), Juno Johnson (c), Sarah Bennett (c), Leighton O. Jones (b), Wenqi Liu (b), George C. Schatz (b), Eric J. Schelter (a), J. Fraser Stoddart (b), Shane S. Galley (c), and Jenifer ...
Investigate the Kinetics of the Color Changing Iodine Clock Reaction
The iodine clock reaction is a favorite demonstration reaction in chemistry classes that usually requires toxic or hazardous chemicals. During the reaction, two clear liquids are mixed, resulting in another clear liquid. After some time, the solution suddenly turns dark blue. The reaction is called a clock reaction because the amount of time that elapses before the solution turns blue depends on ...
Iodination of vanillin and subsequent Suzuki-Miyaura coupling: two-step synthetic sequence teaching green chemistry principles
A two-step synthetic sequence using vanillin was developed for undergraduate organic chemistry labs to replace traditional experiments with greener alternatives. The first step involves iodinating vanillin with Oxone® and potassium iodide in refluxing water, enabling students to analyze substitution positions via ¹H NMR spectroscopy. The iodovanillin is then used in an aqueous Suzuki-Miyaura ...
Iron (Fe) in Vitamins
This is an improvement over a similar lab published in Harris’ Analytical Chemistry text. Instead of using organics to form reddish solutions, the catechins or polyphenolic compounds in green tea form colored complexes with iron. UV-Vis spectroscopy in conjunction with Beer’s law can then be used to determine the concentration of Fe in vitamin tablets.
Other authors: Davis Winn (Georgia Gwinnett ...
Juneteenth in STEMM and the barriers to equitable science
This article, authored by 52 Black scientists, establishes the context of Juneteenth in STEMM and discusses the barriers Black scientists face, the struggles they endure, and the lack of recognition they receive.
Mays, A., Byars-Winston, A., Hinton, A., Marshall, A. G., Kirabo, A., August, A., Marlin, B. J., Riggs, B., Tolbert, B., Wanjalla, C., Womack, C., Evans, C. S., Barnes, C., Starbird, C ...
Justice and injustice in chemistry: aspirin and other drugs
A two-part high school-aged resource to accompany a practical synthesis of aspirin. The first part includes an individual writing reflection on drugs and the pharmaceutical industry, and a group work activity to watch a video and discuss and share ideas from the writing reflection. Students will also discuss epistemic harm and the origins of medicinal chemistry knowledge. The second part includes ...
Key Elements of Green Chemistry
Green chemistry is becoming one of the most timely and popular chemistry courses taught in schools. In fact, this decade has been listed as the age of “Green Chemistry” according to a recent ACS compilation. As I began teaching it, I decided to develop a "living" text that responds to student interests and needs. The existing third edition of my text, which offers a perspective of the green ...
Learning Green Chemistry Principles by Comparing Three Synthetic Routes to a Copper-NHC (NHC = N-heterocyclic carbene) Complex
This resource links to a recent laboratory experiment published in the Journal of Chemical Education by Francis Bru and Catherine S. K. Cazin, highlighting green chemistry principles by comparing three synthetic routes toward a Copper N-heterocyclic carbene complex. It includes the mechanochemical synthesis using a planetary mill and assessments of several green chemistry metrics, including atom ...
Lemonade Lab - Introduction to Green Chemistry Principles
This lesson is for use as part of an introduction to high school chemistry lab. Teachers need to have information on the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry and how to use them to evaluate a lab procedure. They are attached in the appendix to this lab activity. This lesson will be set up as both an at home (remote learning) and in class lab activity taking into account social distancing.
This ...
Make Sustainable Fabrics from Seaweed
Can you imagine clothing, handbags, or shoes made from seaweed or spider silk? To become more sustainable, the textile industry is looking for ways to develop more eco-friendly fabrics. Biofabrics derived from living organisms such as seaweed or bacteria have been proposed as a potential alternative to conventional fibers. In this science project, you will make several biofabrics from alginate ...
Making plastic from potato starch
This resource discusses using potatoes to make plastics and investigates the use of plasticizers.
Mannich Reactions in Room Temperature Ionic Liquids (RTILs): An Advanced Undergraduate Project of Green Chemistry and Structural Elucidation
Many people would argue that one of the ultimate goals of green chemistry should be to solely use water as a solvent if a solvent is needed at all. For reactions where water is not an option, a choice must be made from a wide variety of organic solvents. Recently room temperature ionic liquids (RTIL) have been receiving a lot of attention because of their chemical and thermal stability, low vapor ...
Micelle-Mediated Extraction of Heavy Metals from Environmental Samples: An Environmental Green Chemistry Laboratory Experiment
Analysis of trace metals and organic substances often relies on the use of
organic solvent-based extractions. In this laboratory exercise, students
will use analytical chemistry to determine heavy metals from water samples using a greener, micelle-mediated extraction procedure called cloud-point extraction. Water samples are treated with a chelating agent, ammonium pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate ...
Microwave Synthesis of a Prominent LED Phosphor for School Students: Chemistry’s Contribution to Sustainable Lighting
Scarcer raw materials and climate change are scientific facts that make it necessary to enhance energy efficiency and to recycle raw material. Fundamental researchers at universities as well as in industry agree that light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are the most efficient and sustainable light sources of the future. Chemistry plays a significant role in the development of white, energy-efficient LEDs ...
Microwave-Assisted Heterocyclic Chemistry for Undergraduate Organic Laboratory
Heterocyclic compounds have a wide range of applications and properties. They are often antimicrobial agents, can inhibit specific enzymes, and are generally useful in organic synthesis. This experiment provides instructors with a variety of heterocyclic compounds that can be synthesized quickly with the aid of microwaves. While not a lot of Microwave-Assisted Organic Synthesis (MAOS) is taught at ...
Microwave-Assisted Organic Synthesis in the Organic Teaching Lab: A Simple, Greener Wittig Reaction
Microwave-assisted organic synthesis is becoming a more common laboratory practice. The advantages of using microwave-assisted synthesis include shortened reaction time, lower energy costs, and cleaner reactions. This particular experiment explores a much greener Wittig reaction that doesn't require an inert atmosphere, a strong base (i.e., butyl lithium), or even a solvent. In addition to these ...
Modeling Unit Cells and Layer Sequences of Solar Cell Materials using Dimpled Packaging
Trays such as those used in food packaging that contain regular arrangements of dimples can be used to represent layers of atoms in solid structures used in solar cell technology. For example, the square array of dimples in transparent plastic mini quiche trays or egg cartons can be used to depict layers within cubic or tetragonal unit cells. Multiple solid structures and ways to model those ...
Monitoring local pollutant levels
This resource provided through the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) website provides a collection of resources and data for students to see how to access and evaluate real-time data around air pollutants in local regions. In particular, the resource looks at current and historical levels of nitrogen dioxide in various regions throughout the United Kingdom.
This resource is intended for early high ...
New York State (NYS) Regents Green Chemistry Guide
This document shows how the NYS Chemistry Core Curriculum Performance Indicators and the NYSSLS Performance Expectations for Chemistry are tied to the Beyond Benign Labs that are available for high school students, as well as give some examples for phenomenon and storylines that can be used in the classroom. This document helps to integrate green chemistry and NYS Regents standards into your NYS ...
News from Online: Renewable Resources
Sustainability is an undeniably important issue that any educator who teaches green chemistry must at some point address. This collection of web resources is not only a great reference to aid in curriculum preparation, but it also briefly discusses some of the challenges that the world faces in light of limited resources and a growing population.
The review includes a short summary of green ...
Novel Interdisciplinary Systems-Based Approach to Teaching Sustainability in Plastics
This is an article published in J Chem Ed about a novel way to teach systems thinking in a non-majors chemistry course called "Perspectives on Plastic".
Authors: Marta Guron and Alexis Slentz
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.1c00192
Octanol–Water Partition Coefficient Measurement by a Simple 1H NMR Method
This article describes a simple approach for measuring the octanol-water partition coefficient (Kow) of organic compounds using a simple miniature variation of the shake-flask method in an NMR tube, which can be quickly analyzed using a benchtop 1H NMR spectrometer. The article also details the scope and limitations of the method. Kow is an important metric for understanding bioaccumulation and ...
One-Pot Synthesis of 7-Hydroxy-3-carboxycoumarin in Water
Coumarins represent an important class of natural and synthetic derivatives with interesting biological activities. The 3-carboxycoumarins have been intensely studied because new functionalities can be easily added via the carboxyl group. During this laboratory exercise, students prepare 7-hydroxy-3-carboxycoumarin using a one-pot, multi-step procedure in the absence of organic solvents. By using ...
Organic Chemistry
This module is part of a collection of nine green chemistry teaching modules developed in the early 2000s by a team of faculty (Donna Narsavage-Heald, Trudy Dickneider, David Marx, Timothy Foley, Joan Wasilewski) led by Michael Cann at the University of Scranton and has been migrated to the GCTLC. The subjects of the modules are based on winners of the Green Chemistry Challenge Awards. The modules ...