Green Chemistry
Greening Across the Chemistry Curriculum English | Versión en Español | Versão em Português (Brasil)
NOTES TO INSTRUCTORSGENERAL
Daryle Busch, president of the American Chemical Society said "Green chemistry represents the pillars that hold up our sustainable future. It is imperative to teach the value of green chemistry to tomorrow's chemists.”
Because green chemistry is rapidly becoming the wave of the future, we believe that it is very important that students are exposed to green chemistry in many courses across their chemistry curriculum. These green chemistry modules were developed by a team of faculty members from the University of Scranton for the purpose of inserting green chemistry into specific courses encompassing the chemistry curriculum. It is our hope that other instructors will use these modules as models for infusing green chemistry into their courses. We encourage instructors to use, modify and copy them according to their needs for educational purposes, however any commercial use is prohibited unless permission of the authors is granted. We ask that you let us know when and how you use them (michael.cann@scranton.edu). This will aid us in the assessment of the outcomes of this project.
In order to use the modules we suggest that you first have your students read the Introduction to Green Chemistry and then the specific module for your course. You may then want to discuss this material in class. To aid you in presenting the material in class, each module is equipped with a set of PowerPoint slides. You may want to have students make hard copies of the PowerPoint slides to aid in note taking.
Although each module was developed for a particular course we encourage instructors to peruse all the modules and find ways to infuse additional green chemistry into all the courses you teach. Other efforts to bring green chemistry into the classroom can be found at greenchemistry.html
Industrial Chemistry Module
Petretec – Dupont’s Technology for Polyester Regeneration
This module has been written primarily for use in an industrial chemistry course during a discussion of the petrochemical industry. A preparation for the discussion of Dupont’s Petretec technology, the module covers the areas of fossil fuel reserves, distribution of fossil fuels, and the basics refining and reforming.The reactions which occur during the conversion reactions that are performed in reforming are covered with examples.The module also includes a discussion of the fundamentals of polymerization reactions as they would be covered in an industrial chemistry survey course.This material is then enriched with the discussion of the generation and recycling of polyethylene terephthalate.The Dupont process chemistry is presented in a schematic of the process.
This material would also be useful in polymer courses as an introduction to the processes of petroleum production and refining. While the polymerization coverage would be basic for a polymer course the introduction of the Petretec technology, along with the facts about PET usage and recycling would be a green addition to such courses.The material could also be used in introductory organic chemistry courses as examples of both ionic and free radical polymerization reactions. The Petretec process would serve as an excellent example of an industrially important transesterification reaction in an introductory organic chemistry course as well as in more advanced organic courses.