Green Chemistry

Project Summary

The Green Chemistry project brought together faculty and graduate students from chemistry, chemical engineering, and environmental science to explore the materials, methods, and environmental impacts associated with recycling/processing strategies such as carbon capture, reverse osmosis, plastics recycling and rare-earth metals separation. They conducted literature reviews on these processes, then created video-lectures and live presentations to demonstrate for Chemistry undergraduates the real-world situations wherein fundamental knowledge of chemical processes can be used to analyze and address pressing environmental issues. The project's members then continued to explore literature on plastics degradation in natural environments, which will lead to a critical review of literature and original laboratory research on degradation of marine plastics under ultraviolet light.