PDF Version

CHEM 326: Environmental and Green Chemistry

Winter 2010

Instructors: R. Stephen Brown and Philip G. Jessop

Brown: Office: CHE 404 Phone: 533-2655 E-mail: browns@chem.queensu.ca

Jessop: Office: CHE 412 Phone: 533-3212 E-mail:jessop@chem.queensu.ca

Office hours: Jessop  1-2 pm Tuesdays, 2-3 pm Fridays

Website: http://www.chem.queensu.ca/courses/09/CHEM326/

Text: Environmental Chemistry, 4th Edition, Baird and Cann, Freeman & Company.

Other Literature: On reserve in library:

Environmental Chemistry, 8th Ed., Stanley Manahan (TD193 .M36 2005)

Green Chemistry and Catalysis, R. A. Sheldon et al

Green Chemistry: An Introductory Text, M. Lancaster

Other references will be given throughout the course.

Marking: Problem Sets 9%; Assignments 26%; Midterm 20%; Final Exam 45%

Note on Academic Integrity:

Academic integrity includes the values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. For background details, see www.academicintegrity.org and the University Senate Report on Principles and Priorities. The regulations concerning academic integrity are available in the Arts and Science Calendar (Academic Regulation 1), and at http://www.queensu.ca/calendars/artsci/pg4.html. You are encouraged to discuss any other details with the instructors of this course. Departures from academic integrity include plagiarism, use of unauthorized materials, facilitation, forgery and falsification, and are antithetical to the development of an academic community at Queen's. Given the seriousness of these matters, actions which contravene the regulation on academic integrity carry sanctions that can range from a warning or the loss of grades on an assignment to the failure of a course to a requirement to withdraw from the university.

Course Outline:

1. Overview: define Environmental Chemistry and Green Chemistry; “spheres” of   importance; outline of text; review of concentrations and calculations.[1 lecture slot]

2. Chemistry of the Atmosphere: review of gas-phase reactions; radical reactions and  thermodynamics; chlorine radicals and the ozone ‘layer’, CFCs and other               ozonedepleting contaminants, catalysis on condensed phases; hydroxyl radical, ozone production, proton abstraction, VOCs, NOx, and photochemical smog.[3]

3. Greenhouse effect and global warming: i.r. absorbance spectra and greenhouse effect; major greenhouse gases - CO2, H2O, CH4, N2O, aerosols, others; predicted effects; energy sources and alternatives.[2]

4. Chemistry of contaminants: review of organic chemicals, classes and nomenclature; partition, fugacity and long-range transport; PCBs, PBDEs and others; heavy metals and speciation[3]

5. Toxicity of contaminants: principles of toxicology, mechanism and dose-response; persistence, bioaccumulation and toxicity; pesticides - chlorinated, DDT and others; dioxins and furans; PAHs; estrogenic contaminants; environmental and health effects.[3]

6. Water: natural waters – oxygen and redox chemistry, acid/base chemistry and carbonate system; drinking water - purification, disinfection, impact of chlorine; groundwater –contaminants and remediation; wastewater - phosphate, oxygen demand, fate of organic compounds, wastewater treatment.[4]

7. Soil and sediments: major contaminants – behaviour, fate and transport; chemical and biological remediation methods.[2]

Midterm. [1]

8. Introduction to Green Chemistry: history, goals and principles, economic and legislative drivers.[3]

9. Measures and Metrics: E-factors and related measures, multi-variant assessment of impact, energy consumption.[3]

10. Alternative Feedstocks and Reagents: biomass, waste polymers, CO2.[3]

11. Solvents: solventless conditions, preferred organic solvents, water, supercritical fluids, expanded liquids, ionic liquids, and liquid polymers.[3]

12. Synthetic Methods and Strategies.[2]

Student presentations.[3