The Garden of Green Organic Chemistry at Hendrix College

Abstract

The Hendrix College organic chemistry laboratories were converted to microscale experiments in 1988 to minimize possible adverse environmental impact, increase lab safety, and decrease generation of waste and costs of waste disposal. As we became aware of the green chemistry movement in university research labs and chemical industry in 2000, we wiped the slate clean and did a thorough reevaluation of our laboratory philosophies, practices, procedures, and experiments. An account of our ruminations and conclusions has been published (J. Chem. Educ. 2004, 81, 1187-1190). This chapter, while briefly reviewing our green lab philosophies, will focus primarily on the presentation of practical green organic experiments. Some of these have been adapted from prior experiments, while others we have modified from the primary literature including our own research. We believe that as the menu of green experiments grows in size and variety, the energy of activation for going green at more colleges and universities will be lowered, to the benefit of us all.