Green Chemistry

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A solvent is a substance capable of dissolving other substances. In chemistry, a solvent is used to dissolve or combine substances together, but most of the solvents used are harmful to both the environment and the people around them. Chloroform, acetone, and hexane are common examples of solvents used in chemistry, with all three being harmful to the environment.

In 2014 an eighth grade boy named Tony Mack raced against his father Dr. James Mack of the University of Cincinnati to mix together stilbene molecules used to produce certain dyes, but they approached the task using two different methods. Tony tackled the challenge by putting the molecules in a ball mill, crushing the molecules together. Dr. Mack however used the more traditional method by stirring the materials in a heated container. Dr. Mack's son finished two hours before his father and produced 30 percent more dye material then him.

Not only was Tony Mack's method faster and more efficient but it has no negative environmental or health affects what so ever. Instead of heating dangerous chemicals to extremely high temperatures the only thing happened was molecules being slowly crushed over and over again by heavy metal balls. The process used is called mechanochemistry, or chemistry based off of mechanical force. By removing dangerous solvents from chemistry all together would greatly help the environment. The whole initiative is called "Green Chemistry" and will hopefully in a few years be used worldwide.

Green Chemistry is a relatively new idea and it will take a massive amount of effort to get the whole scientific community to make the switch from the hugely popular solvent. Solvents have been used in chemistry for centuries, and it will surely be a strange change at first. More and more people will have to adopt the green chemistry method before it takes over, but hopefully people will see the need for change. The faster, more efficient, and environmentally friendly method of conducting chemical experiments should however, sell itself.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/19/science/green-chemistry-mechanochemistry.html

http://ccc.chem.pitt.edu/wipf/Frontiers/Zhiyong.pdf






















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