The dangers of organic dye pollutants and environmental pollution improvement through photocatalytic degradation are important courses in applied chemistry programs in universities. Zinc oxide (ZnO)-based nanomaterials are potent catalytic agents against organic dyes, but few experiments are available for students to understand their role and…

TNT is both toxic and explosive, and therefore, the detection of TNT represents an environmental concern and a security concern. Dogs are often used for detection, but other methods are needed. This laboratory investigates a ruthenium bipyridine ([Ru(bpy)[subscript 3]][superscript 2+]) luminescence-based trinitrotoluene (TNT) sensor. Students will…

This paper describes the course outline for a three credit hour nonlaboratory course in Environmental Health Chemistry which was taught from 1981 until 2008 at the State University of New York College at Oneonta. The purpose of this paper is to share the lecture outline in the hopes that it might be useful to others who are preparing to teach…

Developing strong safety cultures in academic institutions requires that students at all levels be educated by faculty in chemical safety. Yet chemical safety education is missing from the chemistry curriculum. This article considers a report of numerous injuries from incidents from using flammable chemicals in demonstrations as evidence that…

The Griess assay is widely used by regulation agencies as an official method for nitrite quantification in water and food samples. In Brazil, the official method, which has been used to determine nitrite in food, was described by Instituto Adolfo Lutz (283/IV) in 1984. It uses 8 mL of reactants and provides 50 mL (reactants plus sample) of waste…

A laboratory experiment was developed to introduce systems thinking and green chemistry concepts through the synthesis of the antidepressant and smoking cessation aid, bupropion hydrochloride. The traditional synthesis has several issues from a green chemistry perspective: it uses the toxic solvents N-methylpyrrolidinone (NMP) and dichloromethane…

Teaching through experiments has always been an indispensable teaching method in chemistry and other STEM disciplines. Letting more students have access to experiments at the frontier of scientific research is essential to stimulating students' interest in chemistry. With the advancement of computer technology, virtual simulation experiments…

This work presents a simple protocol that demonstrates the use of an inexpensive household carbon monoxide detector as a useful tool to detect the release of carbon monoxide gas from thermal cheletropic decarbonylation reactions. The carbon monoxide detection method described has been employed in a short series of reactions used in a university…

A suitable combined laboratory experiment can involve more chemical disciplines and form students' views on practical connections. A laboratory experiment has been prepared focusing on the adsorption of the dangerous Co(II) ion using natural adsorbents representing waste material of a polysaccharide and keratin nature. Efficiency of Co(II)…

Awareness of best safety practices in the industrial sector will allow students in chemistry and chemical engineering programs to apply these approaches to their own safety assessments. Process safety is a critical function within the pharmaceutical industry to ensure safety when performing reactions. An introduction to process safety and a series…

A method to synthesize biaryls through the Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction using a recyclable fluorous precatalyst is described. This laboratory experiment, which demonstrates the safety benefits of green chemistry, is integrated into an upper-division course. Besides simply using the catalyst for a reaction, students can reuse the catalyst…

Laboratory safety is a vital part of a chemical education and can be incorporated into courses throughout the chemistry curriculum. Discussions of laboratory safety can serve as an introduction to the important field of green chemistry. Exposure to this field can better prepare students for safer and more sustainable laboratory practices in…

Developing a broadly based positive culture of safety in undergraduate instructional laboratory settings remains a significant challenge for chemical educators. An enhanced safety component has been developed for an upper-level laboratory course based on earning a Chemical Hygiene and Safety badge. The badge requires student engagement in…

Environmental forensics is the application of knowledge from geosciences and chemistry in a legal setting, e.g., to determine the origin and consequences of contamination events. Teaching environmental forensics requires reactivating prior knowledge from different fields of natural sciences, filling knowledge gaps, and connecting pieces of…

Selecting less hazardous chemicals is a core tenet of green chemistry but is difficult to teach in practice. The upper-year undergraduate or graduate level exercise described here empowers students to make such decisions themselves. Students are tasked with finding the greenest chemical for a specific purpose described in a hypothetical scenario,…