ConfChem Conference on Educating the Next Generation: Green and Sustainable Chemistry—Greening the Organic Curriculum: Development of an Undergraduate Catalytic Chemistry Course

Abstract

Catalysis continues to revolutionize the science and art of organic chemistry, with the 2010, 2005, and 2001 Chemistry Nobel Prizes awarded for developments in new metal-catalyzed reactions. Using catalytic strategies is additionally one of the 12 principles of green chemistry. It is therefore essential that undergraduate students learning organic synthesis be exposed to modern catalytic approaches from both a theoretical and practical perspective. Described here is the creation of a third-year laboratory-intensive undergraduate course entitled Organic Synthesis Techniques, and its focus on teaching green and sustainable chemistry principles. The course showcases seven cutting-edge catalytic methodologies including phase-transfer catalysis, organocatalysis, Lewis and Brønsted acid catalysis, and transition-metal catalysis. Associated lectures are devoted to discussion of green chemical principles and practice with relevant industrial case studies, laboratory techniques undertaken, operative catalytic mechanisms, and instrumental methods of analysis. This communication summarizes one of the invited papers to the ConfChem online conference Educating the Next Generation: Green and Sustainable Chemistry, held from May 7 to June 30, 2010 and hosted by the ACS DivCHED Committee on Computers in Chemical Education (CCCE).