Making green chemistry the norm: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology student Sophia Gospodinova works with associate professor of chemistry Stephanie Poland in the chemistry lab in the New Academic Building on the Rose-Hulman campus on Tuesday. Rose-Hulman has adopted a new green chemistry commitment which that be incorporated into its classes. Staff photo by Joseph C. Garza
Making green chemistry the norm: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology student Sophia Gospodinova works with associate professor of chemistry Stephanie Poland in the chemistry lab in the New Academic Building on the Rose-Hulman campus on Tuesday. Rose-Hulman has adopted a new green chemistry commitment which that be incorporated into its classes. Staff photo by Joseph C. Garza
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The goal of an experiment designed by Sophia Gospodinova in the chemistry lab at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology: Make plastic without producing polluting waste.

Gospodinova is using “green chemistry” as she works on a reaction to have two reagents make the plastic without waste.

“Knowing green chemistry and being able to apply that to your work is really important since it is just better chemistry,” the sophomore chemistry major said on Tuesday. “You produce less waste. It is less hazardous.”

Green chemistry has been integrated into instruction at Rose-Hulman for several years through the efforts of Professor Rebecca DeVasher and associate professor Stephanie Poland.

Poland specializes in green chemistry and has active research projects dealing with carbon dioxide utilization and atom-economic polymerizations.

On Tuesday in Rose-Hulman’s New Academic Building, DeVasher said green chemistry is not just intended to reduce or eliminate waste. It is also designed to help nature, help people and help heal the planet.

“It’s about being a collaborator with nature,” she said.

DeVasher called green chemistry a mindset to design a process to eliminate or reduce waste or hazardous substance, so chemical processes are designed with that in mind.

“So rather than starting with a target and saying we’re going to make this target and we’re not going to worry about any of the steps along this path, green chemistry says, ‘Here is our target molecule. How can we make that with the least amount of waste, the least amount of hazardous substances. What can we design in that system to change the pathway?”

Thinking green is a new pathway within the discipline of chemistry, she said.

Chemical companies of the past often have a poor reputation when it comes to ethics. Creating new things such as plastics or pesticides, without consideration for the pollution and side-effects of the chemistry, is a poor practice, DeVasher said.

By training students to incorporate green chemistry practices, current and coming industries will change their practices for sustainability, she said. “We want the students to have a good practice here at what they will be required to do in industry or whatever future job. These techniques are not necessarily intuitive,” she said. An example of change will be to run a chemical reaction that typically uses a solvent but instead eliminate the solvent. The production of plastic often has waste by-products. Experiments such as that run by sophomore chemistry major Gospodinova address that issue.

The green chemistry commitment is being supported by DeVasher’s department faculty colleagues and all campus administrators.

“This pledge has strong alignment with Rose-Hulman’s educational mission and vision toward helping our students become ‘inspired and prepared for lives of purpose and success,’” DeVasher said.
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