UO PRESS RELEASE

University of Oregon finds Success with Green Chemistry

"You can't focus on just your science; you have to focus on the repercussions of what you're doing," says UO chemistry sophomore Austin Hayes. As a student in the University of Oregon's new Green Organic Lab, Hayes is part of a pioneering movement to clean up organic chemistry - a science responsible for materials we use every day.

The lab, which focuses on reducing waste and hazard in organic chemistry, may be the first full-scale instructional green lab in the country. "It's always exciting to do chemistry that other people aren't doing," says Scott Reed, a graduate student who helped design and research experiments for the lab.

Reed worked with Professors Jim Hutchison and Ken Doxsee to create green experiments that would work in an instructional lab setting. The experiments teach the same principles as a traditional organic lab, but use solvents and reagents that are less toxic. Green chemistry concepts focus on substituting toxic solvents and reagents, and reusing or recycling products and waste whenever possible. The UO department hopes to eventually turn all organic labs "green".

One experiment redesigned for the lab teaches students how to synthesize adipic acid, a chemical used to make nylon. Typically, nitric acid is used as the oxidant. An unfortunate byproduct is nitrous oxide, a chemical that contributes to ozone depletion. The redesigned experiment substitutes a low concentration of hydrogen peroxide as the oxidant.

Students learn the value of recycling products from reactions. In the adipic acid experiment, students first combine cyclohexanol with an acid catalyst to make cyclohexene. The cyclohexene product is later used to make adipic acid. The experiment has been accepted by the Journal of Chemical Education for publication in early 2000.

Another advantage of green chemistry is that it allows students to perform experiments using macoscale quantities with less environmental hazard, just as they would in an industrial setting. "We've been able to move away from microscale to reality," says Marvin Warner, a teaching assistant in the lab.

"Micro scale revolutionized the way that people taught organic chemistry," says Hutchison. But no one else uses micro scale methods except academia. "Because of that, the students are not well-prepared to contribute once they move into industry." The goal of the lab is to get students to think beyond the lab - to take what they learn to work with them and develop skills to help industry solve environmental problems.

"This is going to change students' perception of chemistry," says Hutchison. While in traditional labs, students learn to fear chemicals; in the green lab, students learn to discriminate between what's toxic and what isn't.

The lab, which was piloted last year, received rave reviews from students. This year the class size was increased and instructors are focusing on refining and optimizing the experiments for an even larger lab setting.

"The push toward green chemistry is big. We're giving them a window into what's going to happen in the future," says Warner.