Thinking outside the solvent: The catalyst for creation of green organic chemistry experiments

CHED 50

Thomas E. Goodwin, goodwin@hendrix.edu, Department of Chemistry, Hendrix College, 1600 Washington Avenue, Conway, AR 72032
A green organic chemistry program was begun at Hendrix College in 2001. Early deliberations on the implementation of this program have been described (J. Chem. Educ. 2004, 81, 1187-1190). Spurred by a belief that as more green experiments become generally available, more laboratories will replace traditional procedures with greener ones, we have focused on this task. Our efforts have led to the creation of a variety of new experiments, often featuring carbon-carbon bond formation, tandem reactions, solventless transformations, palladium catalysis (very low mole percent), microwave heating, and/or aqueous media. Examples will be presented, with an emphasis on describing why and how the experiments were conceived; that is, from whence came the initial ideas. Our use of the new solventless technique of solid phase dynamic extraction (SPDE)/GC-MS for analysis of natural products will also be discussed.