Green Chemistry Teacher Professional Development in New York State High Schools: A Model for Advancing Green Chemistry.

Teaching green chemistry within the K-12 classroom has a positive impact on attitudes and perceptions of chemistry in society for future scientists and professionals, resulting in safer, less hazardous chemistry experiments and demonstrations. The state of New York has taken advantage of the benefits that green chemistry provide in the classroom and is a leader in professional development for high school teachers throughout the state. Between 2011 and 2016, Beyond Benign and Siena College implemented 14 workshops across the state as part of New York's Department of Environmental Conservation goal of reducing hazardous chemicals in schools. At these workshops, 224 teachers were introduced to green chemistry principles and practices and provided resources for replacing traditional laboratory experiments with alternatives that used safer materials. Two professional development models were implemented, a one-day introductory workshop and a three-day train-the-trainer style in-depth workshop, using collaborative, hands-on, intensive, and peer-learning techniques. In response to a 2021 follow-up survey, participants shared that they continue to use skills from the professional development they received and reported sharing about green chemistry with peers, parents, and administrators. The long-term engagement of the participants indicates that successful models were implemented to provide a path to develop teacher leaders. Professional development models are presented herein for sharing best practices and approaches for training high school teachers on green chemistry, providing numerous benefits to both teachers and students in high school classrooms.

The science of green chemistry and its role in chemicals policy and educational reform.

Over the past 10 years, the science of green chemistry has continued to evolve and has been adopted in research labs in industry and academia. At the same time, new innovations in chemicals policy have widened opportunities for legislative action to protect human health and the environment. This article addresses the mechanisms by which the science of green chemistry and chemicals policy can work together to help attain a more sustainable future. It also speaks to the pitfalls of inappropriately merging these two, and explores how such a merger could inhibit the creation of sustainable technologies. Green chemistry's role in educational reform is discussed as a means for training students who are prepared to create truly sustainable technologies.

Effect of pH on the viscosity of titanium dioxide aqueous dispersions with carboxylic acids.

Dispersions of titanium dioxide nanoparticles with terephthalic acid, isophthalic acid, salicylic acid, benzoic acid, and pyridine-2,5-dicarboxylic acid were prepared by aqueous grinding. The pH of the dispersions was adjusted by adding either HCl or NaOH, and the viscosity of the dispersions was measured. It was found that the viscosity of the system depends strongly on pH. The qualitative interpretation of the results based on the DLVO theory is presented. The evidence of the effect of bridging interactions on the viscosity of titanium dioxide-dicarboxylic acid dispersions is discussed.