Green Chemistry
Zeitraum: 14.–16. September 2022 (Anreise am 13. September 2022)
Dauer: 3 Tage
Ort: Internationale Akademie Traunkirchen, Oberösterreich
Sprache: Englisch
Zahl der Teilnehmer/innen: 20–25
Wissenschaftliche Leitung: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Miriam Unterlass (Universität Konstanz, Fachbereich Chemie)
Kurzbeschreibung: Chemistry surrounds us everywhere in our lives. The very building blocks of life itself are molecules and synthetic compounds, such as pharmaceuticals or materials, are equally omnipresent. Yet, the public associates the discipline often with negative features, e.g., environmental pollution, microplastics, or compounds endangering human health. While chemistry is responsible and underlying a vast number of positive features, these negative aspects fall indeed in the realm of the discipline. Chemists are aware if these issues and work on solutions to these problems and foreseeable future challenges. Green Chemistry summarizes chemists’, but also engineers’, sociologists’, environmental scientists’, and policy makers, -- to name but a few -- efforts to find, develop and enforce sustainable chemistry. The seminar will provide the participants with an overview of Green Chemistry and its approaches. We will (i) define and discuss the problems and challenges that generate/-ed the need for Green Chemistry in the first place, (ii) summarize and analyze the principles of Green Chemistry and how one calculates if these goals are met, (iii) discuss how these principles can be best met chemically. For the latter, we will analyze various chemical reactions and several chemical syntheses, with the goal of identifying underlying general principles. Finally, (iv) we will analyze and discuss the current approaches to implement Green Chemistry and will together design further and alternative approaches.
The seminar will be conducted in English. During the seminar all participants will work in groups on a poster that will be presented and discussed at a mini-conference with all participants and the general public held during the seminar. In preparing for this seminar, all participants will receive reading material and a poster template.
The paper topics (groups) are:
- Implementation of Green Chemistry in academic research labs
- Implementation of Green Chemistry in the industry
- Green Chemistry and the consumer: Powers and choices
- Global and temporal aspects of Green Chemistry