Upcycling Waste Polycarbonate into N,N’-Diphenylethylurea: A Hands-On Experiment for Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratories

Abstract

The urgent challenge of climate change drives the need for sustainable and environmentally friendly practices, such as recycling, upcycling, and sustainable chemistry. Despite their importance, these practices are rarely integrated into undergraduate chemistry laboratories. Here, we describe a hands-on approach suitable for a second-semester organic chemistry lab that incorporates waste management principles, guiding students to recognize the value of repurposing chemical waste. The precursors for this experiment are discarded CDs and DVDs, which are readily available in most households. This not only helps reduce waste but also demonstrates how everyday materials can be transformed into high-value chemicals (HVCs). In this lab, students extract a carbonyl group from old CDs and DVDs, using a process called “carbonyl harvesting,” to show how waste can be turned into valuable materials. The recycled bisphenol A (BPA) is monitored using thin layer chromatography (TLC) and collected separately, while the N,N’-diphenylethylurea is purified by simple filtration and characterized using ¹H, ¹³C NMR, IR, XRD, and melting point analysis. This approach not only reinforces fundamental organic lab techniques but also provides hands-on training in sustainability lab practices, showing students how to integrate waste management, resource recovery, and sustainability into their experimental work. Its versatility allows it to be integrated into chemical engineering, general chemistry, and biotechnology curricula. It serves as a valuable learning tool by demonstrating sustainable process design, functional group preservation, and selective chemical transformations.