Learning objectives
This course will give the necessary bases to tackle future developments of green chemistry by showing the evolution of this concept in the last twenty years, spanning from synthesis to catalysis and technology.
This mix of topics are a valuable cultural bridge connecting this course with every precedent one dealing with synthetic, reactivity and catalysis issues.
Knowledge and understanding: the course presents theoretical and practical aspects of the main innovative technologies in synthetic chemistry, with a keep focus on economical and environmental issues.
Communication skills: it is stressed the capacity to acquire a formally rigorous language, it is nurtured the skill to express concepts in a clear and concise fashion.
Applying
knowledge and understanding, making judgments: at the end of the program, the student will have developed a critical approach towards the literature of this field as well as for the analysis of the sustainability of a synthetic process.
Prerequisites
Knowledge of organic chemistry, synthesis and catalysis in their theoretical and practical aspects.
Course unit content
The principal solutions and open issues connected with sustainable development.
The impact of the rationale of green chemistry on synthesis, catalysis, free-radicals and technology over the last 30 years.
Full programme
Concepts of green chemistry, social and environmental sustainability. Sources and their evolution from the 80s.
DI: Knowledge and understanding; making judgements; applying knowledge and understanding
Solvents and green chemistry; how to measure the issue (yield, atom economy, E-factor) and its cost; synthetic applications.
DI: Knowledge and understanding; making judgements; applying knowledge and understanding
Green energy, pros, cons, costs and their evolution since 2000 (hydro, geo, photo and wind); impact of chemistry on the development of these technologies.
DI: Knowledge and understanding; making judgements; applying knowledge and understanding
Catalysis and heterogeneous materials, pros and cons through relevant synthetic examples. Presentation and discussion of these aspects in respect to selected recent literature.
DI: Applying knowledge and understanding;
- Making judgements;
- Communication skills
Free radicals, history, thermodynamics and kinetic, radical mediators and their developments (from tin to silicon and photocatalysis), synthetic application towards complex bioactive molecules.
DI: Knowledge and understanding; applying knowledge and understanding
Bibliography
Lecture note will be completed by scientific articles that will become available on the web throughout the semester.
Teaching methods
The course will be held through 48 hours of lectures. Whether external circumstances will be forcing, the whole program or part of it might be discussed remotely. Close to the beginning of the term, the didactic repository will be updated to inform students on the organization of teaching.
Assessment methods and criteria
The oral exam will verify the knowledge of theoric aspects encountered during the course, the solution of reactivity exercises connencted to and the presentation of a relevant scientific article linked to them.
DI: Applying knowledge and understanding;
- Making judgements;
- Communication skills
Other information
Lecture notes are available on the web.
The teacher is available upon request for discussion and explanation of
specific topics.
Information on the content of the course (see below) are associated with the relative "Dublin Indicators" (DI) that characterize their purposes.
Dublin Indicators:
- Knowledge and understanding;
- Applying knowledge and understanding;
- Making judgements;
- Communication skills;
- Learning skills.
2030 agenda goals for sustainable development
This course contributes to the realization of the UN 2030 Road Map objectives for a sustainable development
