Exploring Sustainability Metrics in General Chemistry Using Intensive and Extensive Properties of Matter

Abstract

As introductory chemistry courses expose students to many distinctive properties of matter, it is helpful to systematically evaluate and relate different measures such as mass, moles, and molarity, or specific heat capacity and heat capacity. Intensive and extensive designations help distinguish intrinsic and component properties of a system and are often introduced to students, but they are infrequently explored or exploited beyond introductory chapters. Intensive metrics used to address green chemistry principles include process mass efficiency, median lethal dose, and radiative forcing. These sustainability metrics build on fundamental measures introduced in general chemistry such as yield, concentration, and energy by collecting extensive components of a system with complementary intensive measures. As interdisciplinary sustainability metrics bridge scales and systems and connect chemical, environmental, and engineering concerns, they can be used to help further explain and employ concepts currently taught in a general chemistry course. This commentary serves to examine the extensive and intensive nature of measures found in a first-semester general chemistry course and classify them alongside relevant sustainability metrics. While general chemistry is not necessarily an outlet to fully explore these metrics, the introduction and exploration of these metrics, such as process mass efficiency in relation to yield, may better allow them to practice general chemistry learning objectives both inside and outside the classroom.