A Greener Approach for Measuring Colligative Properties

As a first step towards the greening of instructional laboratories, we present a new greener version of a laboratory procedure designed to measure colligative properties. The greener procedure substitutes the nontoxic, noncarcinogenic compounds stearic, myristic, lauric, and palmitic acids for the less benign aromatic compounds p-dichlorobenzene, benzil, biphenyl, naphthalene, and nitrotoluene. Achieving educational goals without the concomitant generation of chlorinated and aromatic wastes is shown here to be both possible and practical. Furthermore, utilization of the benign fatty acid waste stream for other purposes, such as making soap, wax, or biodiesel, allows this laboratory to approach the zero waste benchmark.