In this article, we'll discuss about the total details of Green Chemistry which is very popular in recent days. So, let's see about the one by one topic in green chemistry. Topics are like- What is Green Chemistry? What are the Importance of Green Chemistry? Disadvantages of green chemistry. Examples of green chemistry etc.
What is Green Chemistry?
Firstly, the most important thing is who is the father of Chemistry? So, The father of green chemistry is Paul t anastas. He is an American scientist.
Now, let's see about what is green chemistry? Green Chemistry is the Chemistry of chemical compounds that do not negatively affected on the environment, when used in excess quantities or in little quantities. There is a pressing requirement to find out more and more chemicals that do not impacted on the environment negatively or (do not have any side effects) due to the enhancing pollution and Global Warning.
Green Chemistry is so named because of this field of Chemistry focused towards eco-friendly. And therefore it aims to be eco-friendly, it is called 'green'.
What is the importance of Green Chemistry?
There are many importance of green chemistry in nowadays. The some importance are given below:
1) Cleaner air: Minimum release of toxic/ harmful chemicals to air produces to less damage to lungs.
2) Cleaner water: Minimum release of harmful chemical wastes to water produces to cleaner drinking and recreational water.
3) Increased security for workers in the chemical industry; lower use of hazardous substances; low personal protective equipment required; less potential for accidents for example- fires or explosions etc.
4) Safer consumer products of all kinds: New, Safer products will become available for purchase; few products like drugs will be prepared with minimum waste; several products such as pesticides, cleaning products will be replacements for less safe products.
5) Safer food: Removing of persistent toxic chemicals that can enter the food chain; safer pesticides which are harmful only to specific pests and degrade fastly after use.
6) Less exposure to such hazardous chemicals as endocrine disruptors.
The main disadvantage of green chemistry is that it easily not as effective. I totally support efforts to lower or stopped the use of chemicals that are hazardous to the environment, but a little part of me misses the effectiveness of those chemicals. Example: A test I perform continuously used to use methylene chloride as a solvent. The stuff was great- Effective, refused to mix with water, easy to separate, evaporated instantly. There was only one problem that is the stuff was largely harmful.
So, the decision was made to switch it with the less-toxic hexane. It works, but not as well. It takes longer, doesn’t separate from water as easily, and can emulsify (mix with water in tiny droplets that take forever to separate out again). My tests take longer to perform, and aren’t quite as efficient. Still, I’m not at as high a risk of poisoning myself when I perform it anymore, so there’s that.
What are examples of green chemistry?
There are many examples for Green Chemistry that contains biodegradable plastic, non-toxic and non-polluting fuel. Green Chemistry can also refer to processes like Metallurgy, in which the extraction of Aluminium from Bauxite is done such that No Hydrogen Chloride or any other hazardous substance is released.
What are future potential of green chemistry?
Green chemistry is a important and ever-changing field of chemistry concerned with studying and applying chemical principles which are not distrubing to the environment. One of the example of the future of green chemistry that in colleges there is developing micellar phase extractions with detergent molecules to separate heavy metals from chemical solutions instead of using hazardous organic solvents such as acetone and nitric acid to do the similar thing.
Exploring naturally produced crayfish shells as electrode material for cyclic voltammetry - an electrochemical technique. Other situations are being solved using green chemistry as well. For example, Bill Gates and his wife have created a prize for the growth of a toilet that will efficiently harvest energy from human feces and lower toxic byproducts of modern plumbing. Cleaner burning fuel polymers fall under green chemistry as well.
With the plethora of environmental challenges continuing to develop, green chemistry will become a crucial and developing component of industry in the future in my opinion.
1) The goal of green chemistry, sometimes showed as 'Benign by Design'. Involves preventing environmental degradation as opposed to cleanup and remediation after the fact.
2) Green chemistry draws upon all the other areas of chemistry, chemical engineering, and occasionally other disciplines such as toxicology as well.
3) Guiding principles of Green Chemistry have been crystallized to twelve:
> Some reactions have been found to work solvent-free.
> Water in several ways the most natural solvent can often replace flammable and harmful organic media, once certain others parameters of the reaction are changed.
4) Nature’s catalysts - Enzymes can today make different industrially important chemical intermediates, While still in the development stage, these reactions replace the much dirtier methods containing petroleum feedstocks. One of the pioneers: Dr. John Frost, Michigan State U.
5) Few times 'element replacement' is the solution. While one hears a lot about how hazardous heavy metals are, there are exceptions. Bismuth, Bi is the Green Heavy Metal hence called because of its low-toxicity and capacity to replace lead in everyday items such as ammunition and fishing lures while also serving as benign chemical reagents Bismuth Nitrate as oxidant.
6) 'Atom Economy' means that one should strive to incorporate as much of the reactant in or the product as possible, ie, avoid throwing away “leftovers”or
Ex: Consider the reaction A+ B → C + D
If only C is the desired product then D must be cast aside barring a safe recycling process or alternate use.
Now, consider A+ B → C. If C can be efficiently made, wasted atoms are minimized.
7) Life Cycle Analysis. Cradle-to-Grave environmental assessment of product/method. For example, will an otherwise favorable made product unsafely degrade in a landfill? Can its components be reused or find another life as a different kind of product?
Above are just a some snapshots of this wide-open and still young field. If we have access, the Journal of Green Chemistry is one of the premier periodicals. U. Mass Boston is just one leading US institution with a good reputation , but much of the work is spread throughout different schools in the US and internationally.
A solvent that’s not an environmental toxic would be a green solvent. Usually though, we requires to use the comparative. For example - Methanol is Greener than dichloromethane, that is Greener than dimethylformamide. None of them is really great to be dumping into waterways in excess quantities, but we try to use solvents that are as harmless as possible.
If we have to use something nasty, we design the process to enable recycling the nasty stuff.
What is the difference between environmental chemistry and green chemistry?
Environmental chemistry is the study of the composition of our environment and how it reacts with other influences. But the Green chemistry is a branch of environmental chemistry that studies how to produce chemicals without harming the environment.
In environmental chemistry, the object is to study the environment and ways to protect it from pollution. In green chemistry, the goal is on searching a way to avoid or lower pollution by changing manufacturing processes.
