ENVI 363
Environmental Fate of Organic Chemicals Fall 2024
Division III
Cross-listed CHEM 363

Class Details

This course introduces students to the methods used to assess the risks posed by organic chemicals to human, animal, and ecosystem health. Our goal is to develop a quantitative understanding for how specific features of organic molecular structure directly dictate a given molecule’s environmental fate. We will begin by using thermodynamic principles to estimate the salient physiochemical properties of molecules (e.g., vapor pressure, solubility, charging behavior, etc.) that impact the distribution, or partitioning, of organic chemicals between air, water, soils, and biota. Then, using quantitative structure activity relationships, we will predict the degradation kinetics resulting from natural nucleophilic, photochemical, and biological processes that determine chemical lifetime in the environment.
The Class: Format: lecture/laboratory; lecture, three hours per week and laboratory, four hours per week
Limit: 12
Expected: 12
Class#: 1096
Grading: no pass/fail option, no fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: weekly problem sets, laboratory exercises, two midterm exams, a final exam, participation in lecture and lab
Prerequisites: CHEM 155 or CHEM 256 and CHEM 156; or CHEM 200 and CHEM 201
Enrollment Preferences: junior and senior Chemistry and Environmental Studies majors with a demonstrated interest in environmental chemistry
Distributions: Divison III
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
ENVI 363 Division III CHEM 363 Division III
Attributes: ENVI Natural World Electives
EVST Environmental Science

Class Grid

Updated 10:46 am

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