AI4Green4Students: Promoting sustainable chemistry in undergraduate laboratories with an electronic lab notebook

Abstract

AI4Green is an open-source, machine-learning-powered electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) developed to help chemists mitigate environmental impacts, particularly within the pharmaceutical sector. This study presents AI4Green4Students, a pedagogically adapted version designed to foster sustainable laboratory practices. The AI4Green4Students ELN includes features for sustainability assessment, data documentation, and analysis, aiming to equip students with skills for modern, sustainable laboratory practices. User feedback, gathered through questionnaires and interviews, informed the initial development and subsequent refinements of the application. Implementation in a Year 3 undergraduate chemistry lab project indicated improved adherence to sustainable practices, suggesting that the ELN supports the integration of sustainable chemistry into laboratory teaching. Future efforts will expand AI4Green4Students to include additional experiments to broaden its applicability across undergraduate chemistry courses, as well as integrate machine learning tools to enhance data analysis capabilities.

More information

Identifiers

ORCID for Samantha Pearman-Kanza: orcid.org/0000-0002-4831-9489

ORCID for Cerys Willoughby: orcid.org/0000-0003-1721-9212

Catalogue record

Export record

Altmetrics