The chemistry department has attracted recognition with its environmentally friendly program
By Ben Romano
Oregon Daily Emerald

A new organic chemistry class focusing on environmentally friendly experiments has catapulted the University chemistry department into the national spotlight.

Green Chemistry, developed by chemistry professors Ken Doxsee and Jim Hutchison, utilizes safer chemicals to teach students organic chemistry in a way that minimizes environmental impact, reduces costs and provides skills currently in demand in the field.

"It turns out that nobody else in the world is doing this," Hutchison said.

The class, in its second year, has received much interest from the American Chemical Society and the Environmental Protection Agency, he said.

Green Chemistry is scheduled to entirely replace traditional organic chemistry at the University by the 2001-02 school year.

Other plans include the establishment of a center to instruct chemistry professors at other universities how to teach Green Chemistry and the publication of the first Green Chemistry text book, Doxsee said.

One reason Green Chemistry is getting attention is that it solves problems associated with traditional organic chemistry, he said.

In traditional organic chemistry, students execute experiments on a "micro scale," using extremely small quantities of toxic chemicals to minimize exposure and reduce hazardous waste disposal costs.

"We were dissatisfied with micro scale; it's not realistic," Doxsee said.

Green Chemistry students are able to practice chemistry on a real-world scale with reduced risk to themselves and the environment. Corrosive solvents and reagents are replaced with safer chemicals or eliminated entirely when possible.

"Most materials we use in Green Chemistry are less dangerous than what is used in the traditional curriculum," said Michael Medlock, a junior biology major. "It's pleasant to think that I can learn chemistry without developing some sort of cancerous tumor."

In addition to the improved safety of the Green Chemistry course, students benefit by learning skills currently in demand.

"There is a developing trend in the chemical industry towards trying to do chemistry in a green way that will destroy the environment less," Doxsee said. "[Green Chemistry] trains the students to find realistic solutions to environmental problems."

This point is not lost on students in the class.

"The idea of the class is to educate us about Green Chemistry. We learn about environmental and health impacts of traditional chemistry and how problems can be minimized with alternative methods," Medlock said. "If industries can find scientists who are used to thinking in terms of finding alternative ways to get the job done while keeping in mind environmental, health, safety and social issues, the public will be better off."

Producing a curriculum that would include the essential elements of organic chemistry in an environmentally conscious curriculum was no easy task.

"Many green experiments don't always fit in the laboratory time of three hours," Hutchison said.

Hutchison, Doxsee and their assistants had to do some "really serious tweaking" of the experiments to make them fit in the allotted time and to increase their reliability, he said.

"Sometimes we don't quite have enough time to finish an experiment, or a reaction doesn't work out as it was intended," Medlock said. "The instructors are still working out the kinks."