Green Chemistry

Course Description

COURSE CONTENT

Green chemistry is based on 12 principles dedicated to design, development and production of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use or production of substances that are hazardous to human health and the environment.

 Students will get familiar with the dominant trends of green program such are:

• Research in the field of catalytic and biocatalytic reactions in order to obtain highly selective, pure products without the formation of toxic by-products
• Finding and testing new alternative, non-toxic and renewable reaction media such as water, ionic liquids and supercritical fluids
• Finding and testing alternative energy-saving reaction conditions (microwave radiation, ultrasound and light)
• Search for new, harmless and renewable raw material
• Research in the field of alternative ways of purification of contaminated air and water in order to improve their quality (photocatalytic reactions)

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• analyze chemical processes using E-factor and atom economy approach 
• understand and define the catalytic action of new types of green catalysts
• apply catalytic reactions in alternative reaction media in order to use less toxic substances
• understand and define the advantages of chemo-, regio- and enantioselectivity of bio-catalytic transformations of synthetic and natural materials with respect to classical chemical processes
• understand the potential of biocatalytic research and the development of new biocatalysts and biocatalytic deracemization
• choose green non-toxic chemical substances and conduct green synthetic processes
• understand and apply photocatalytic processes for the decomposition of organic pollutants arising from human activity
• understand and apply solutions to major global issues such as climate change, energy consumption and water resource management for sustainability