NSF Award
9452031
9452031 Baker This project is designed to introduce science and non-science majors to environmental compliance methodology with experiments of four different types: (1) Measurements of specific properties of substances like pKas or kf values, in complex solutions like those that might be found in waste streams or measurement of distribution coefficients of hazardous waste solutes between aqueous solutions and oil or dirt or microbial sludge. (2) Degradation of organics by treatment with inorganic oxidizers like ammonium persulfate or hydrogen peroxide/light or oxidizing enzymes or microbial cultures. (3) Experiments in which students manufacture a product by a method that generates hazardous waste streams document concentrate and clean up those streams. (4) Waste minimization experiments in which the products of one lab experiment become the starting materials for another (not necessarily in the same lab course). All of these experiments are being managed by a high-quality UV-VIS spectrophotometer capable of multicomponent analysis. This proposal seeks funds for a Hewlett-Packard HP 8452A UV-VIS, a Vectra 486.25 computer with an HP50Q Desk Jet printer and software capable of general scanning, multicomponent analysis and kinetic studies. This project is giving students insight into how chemists have to think in environmental compliance work, and into the experimental ramifications of hazardous waste legislation on chemical manufacturing processes.
