Introducing ecotoxicity to the chemistry laboratory curriculum: Studying green chemistry principles by measuring ecotoxicity using Escherichi coli

CHED 92

Andrew R. Luhrs, andrew.luhrs@gordon.edu and Dwight J. Tshudy, dwight.tshudy@gordon.edu. Department of Chemistry, Gordon College, 255 Grapevine Road, Wenham, MA 01984
Using E. coli and a commercial live/dead bacteria kit, a procedure appropriate for an undergraduate analytical or molecular biology lab course was developed. Biodiesel and petrodiesel were chosen as model materials. The ecotoxicity was determined by measuring the percent of live bacteria after exposure to water that was contaminated with either biodiesel or petrodiesel. This procedure could be extended to analytically determine the ecotoxicity of other materials as a way study the green chemistry principles of "Less Hazardous Chemical Syntheses" and "Designing Safer Chemicals."
 

General Posters
7:30 PM-9:30 PM, Sunday, August 19, 2007 BCEC -- Exhibit Hall - B2, Poster

Division of Chemical Education

The 234th ACS National Meeting, Boston, MA, August 19-23, 2007