Green Chemistry
Greening Across the Chemistry Curriculum English | Versión en Español | Versão em Português (Brasil)
NOTES TO INSTRUCTORS
GENERAL
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 (cannm1@uofs.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
TAMLTM Module
This module is designed to be used in both a descriptive inorganic and an advanced inorganic chemistry course. In the descriptive course, the module will apply when the oxidizing power of the halogens is discussed along with general coordination geometry involving macrocyclic ligands. The phaseout of gaseous chlorine and chlorine dioxide in favor of greener reactants would be an appropriate topic of discussion.
In the advanced inorganic course, the module will be useful when discussing reaction mechanisms and the effects of ligands upon oxidizing ability of coordination complexes. Traditionally, Fenton's reagent is used to illustrate the importance of considering the elementary steps in the course of a reaction. Fenton's reagent consists of only Fe(II) and hydrogen peroxide. This mixture is capable of oxidizing many organic substartes that are oxidation-resistant. The enhanced oxidizing power of this reagent is not readily obvious until the formation of hydroxyl radical is apparent in the reaction sequence. The TAMLTM activators discussed in this module are Non-Fenton based oxidizing agents utilizing tetraamide ligands. These complexes can be discussed during the portion of the course dealing with macrocyclic coordination, the EAN rule, and catalysis reactions. No additional material need be introduced into the course, rather it is suggested that these TAMLTM activators can be used to discuss the importance of ligand substituents upon the oxidizing performance of metal complexes within the broader topic of catalysis.