46072 - Green Chemistry

Learning outcomes

Students will gain a comprehensive understanding of green chemistry principles, focusing on renewable resources, green metrics, and sustainable synthesis and catalysis. They will explore methods to evaluate and improve the sustainability of chemical processes and apply advanced green methodologies in organic synthesis. The student is expected to be able to: 1. Understand and apply the principles of using renewable resources for chemical production, including the conversion of biomass into bio- based products and fuels; 2. Evaluate the environmental efficiency of chemical processes using green metrics such as Atom Economy, Reaction Mass Efficiency, and E Factor, and propose improvements; 3. Design and implement advanced green synthesis strategies, utilizing catalytic methodologies to achieve simplicity, selectivity, and sustainability in organic synthesis.

Course contents

he UC consists of three modules, with the following contents:

Green Chemistry

GS1 Renewable Sources

GS4 Green synthesis and Catalysis

GS2 Green Metrics

GS1 Renewable Sources

This module will introduce students to the most important features of sustainable green chemical products. The student will become aware of the principles and general tools of Green Chemistry; of the most important awards for recognizing the successful green chemicals; of the general guidelines for the design of more sustainable and less problematic chemicals.

Moreover, successful important examples of new alternative green products will be presented.

GS4 Green synthesis and Catalysis

Introduction: Adhering to the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry: How Does Homogeneous Catalysis Contribute? Definition, Variants and Examples: What Actually Is Catalysis? Definition of Catalysis. The Different Varieties of Catalysis (homogeneous catalysis, heterogeneous catalysis, biocatalysis, organocatalysis, photocatalysis, electrocatalysis) The Directing Effect of the Catalyst. Sources of Information About Catalysis. Brief History: Homogeneous Transition Metal Catalysis. Industrial Homogeneous Catalysis: What Is the Economic Importance? Definition of Important Terms: TON, TOF and more. Yield Selectivity. Chemoselectivity. Regioselectivity. Diastereoselectivity. Enantioselectivity

Basics of Organometallic Chemistry: Bonds, Elementary Steps and Mechanisms. Change of OxidationState and Coordination Number and Coordination Geometry. The Elementary Steps. Catalytic Cycles. Examples of elementary steps in catalysis. Some Industrial Examples: SHOP process, Wacker oxidation, Du-Pont adiponitrile. Examples with metals. The Costs of Catalyst Metals and Availability of Transition Metal Compounds. Stereoselective catalysis.

Heterogenous catalysis vs homogeneous catalysis differences. Basic heterogeneous catalysis. Some key concepts Enzymatic catalysis. A summary. Examples of key processes.

Organocatalysis: activation modes-based activation modalities of organic compounds

GS2 Green Metrics

1. Fundamental concepts of efficiency in organic synthesis (yield, conversion, chemo-, regio- and stereo-selectivity).

2. Principles of green and sustainable chemistry applied to synthetic transformations.

3. Metrics used to quantify the ""greenness"" of a chemical reaction: Atom and Step Economy, E factor, Reaction Mass Efficiency, Mass and Solvents Intensity."

Readings/Bibliography

For the module GS1 (Renewable Sources):

Lecturer slides.

P. V. Petrovic, P. T. Anastas, (2023) ""First do No Harm""; Jenny Stanford Publisher. Anastas, P. (2012) Handbook of Green Chemistry. Wiley"

For the module GS4 (Green Synthesis and Catalysis):

Lecturer slides.

Gadi Rothemberg: Catalysis: Concepts and Green applications Wiley, VCH.

Gopinathan Anilkumar · Salim Saranya Editors: Green Organic Reactions, Springer

Green Chemistry for Environmental Remediation, R. Sanghi, V Singh Eds., Scrivener Publishing LLC., 2012

“Green Chemistry Metrics: Measuring and Monitoring Sustainable Processes”, A. Lapkin , D. Constable (Eds.), Wiley-Blackwell, 2008, ISBN: 978-1-4051-5968-5.

For the module GS2 (Green Metrics):

Lecturer slides.

Recommended readings:1. Fundamentals of green chemistry - Chem. Soc. Rev., 2012, 41, 1437–1451

2. The E Factor fifteen years on - Green Chem., 2007, 9, 1273–1283

3. So you think your process is green, how do you know - Green Chem., 2001, 3, 1–6

4. Metrics to ‘green’ chemistry—which are the best - Green Chem., 2002, 4, 521–527

5. Sustainable Chemistry Metrics - ChemSusChem 2009, 2, 905 – 919"

Teaching methods

The course unit is divided in three modules. Each module is organized in theoretical classes where main concepts are explained, as well as tutorial classes with discussion of case-study examples. In the theoretical lectures main concepts are presented and explained. The tutorial classes, by problem-based case studies, it will be possible to consolidate the students’ competence in the fields.

Assessment methods

Each module is assessed in a specific way that will be specified at the begin of module’s classes. Assessment can be: a written assignment, a power point presentation or analogous a, including a report on literature research, a short written test or a review.

For the module GS1 (Renewable Sources):

Module GS1 will be assessed through individual report and presentation on a topic related to the module content or a written test.

For the module GS4 (Green Synthesis and Catalysis):

Module GS4 will be assessed through individual report on a topic related to the module content

For the module GS2 (Green Metrics):

Module GS2 will be assessed by a written exercise on a chemical transformation, where the student is asked to answer the following questions: 1) Report the relevant hazards of the reagents, by-products formed, and solvents employed (5 points). 2) Calculate the AE, E-factor, SF (1/SF), RME, MRP values, and yield for this transformation (20 points). 3) Draw the radial pentagon for this transformation, briefly commenting on the sustainability of the process (5 points).

The Course Unit grade will be the arithmetic average of grades from the three modules.

Teaching tools

Slides, written texts, articles and PDF documents of article to discuss will be available to students.

Office hours

See the website of Pier Giorgio Cozzi

See the website of Emilio Tagliavini

See the website of Marco Lombardo