The sixth Open Research Lecture in the frame of Postgraduate Studies Programme "Sustainable Engineering and Climate Change", will be delivered on Friday, 16th of December, 2022 at 17:00, Hall K2.A1 and online via zoom (see below).

You are welcome to attend the lecture «The Ten Principles of Green Sample Preparation and the First Metric Tool for Greenness Assessment» by Prof. Elia Psillakis, Head of the Aquatic Chemistry Lab, School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Crete.

Abstract:

Green Analytical Chemistry (GAC) has been formulated in twelve principles, serving as guidelines for greening analytical methods. Among these, the first one suggested applying direct analytical techniques to avoid sample preparation, assumed to exacerbate the environmental, health, and safety issues associated with chemical analyses. This principle is commonly misinterpreted and creates the false impression that omitting the sample preparation step is a green approach, fully neglecting the “green” technological aspects and advances in the field. Sample preparation remains a key step in the analytical process. In this direction, (re)defining sample preparation within the context of Green Chemistry and GAC to address sustainability issues and promote the practice of Green Sample Preparation (GSP) is of crucial importance. Herein, the ten principles of GSP are proposed with the aim of establishing a road map toward the development of overall greener analytical methodologies. Contrary to the GAC approach that focuses on the measurement step, the ten GSP principles give prominence to sample preparation and connect it to the sampling and measurement steps. Paramount aspects for greening sample preparation and their interconnections are identified and discussed. These include the use of safe solvents/reagents and materials that are renewable, recycled and reusable, minimization of waste and energy demand, speed, miniaturization, procedure simplification/automation, and operator’s safety. Further, the importance of applying green metrics for assessing the greenness of sample preparation methods is highlighted, and AGREEprep, the first tool dedicated to sample preparation step greenness assessment, is presented. The proposed metric tool predicts as well as detects aspects that could be improved for greening the critical step of sample preparation. Green sample preparation is sample preparation. It is not a new subdiscipline of sample preparation but a guiding principle that promotes sustainable development through the adoption of environmentally benign sample preparation procedures.

Join Zoom Meeting:
https://tuc-gr.zoom.us/j/82372239714?pwd=bEd4aUMzZ1hlRmZsNjNPcC9WclNoUT09

Meeting ID: 823 7223 9714
Password: 466740