Background: In the past few years, chemistry and materials science have
begun to emphasize active pro-environmental practice—laboratory design, research
policies, and use of instruments, equipment, and procedures designed to protect the environment
from avoidable harm. Tenets of this approach, informally called
green chemistry in
green labs 
include
energy-efficient design, increased instrument sensitivity, micro-scale sampling, and minimized
solvent use to reduce environmental exposure and chemical wastes. In addition to
environmental benefits, rewards include safety, efficiency, reduced costs, and smaller space
requirements. While “green” chemistry and labs have no absolute requirements,
guidelines for
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification have been developed.
Project Description: In 2007 the Library of Congress Preservation Research and Testing Division (PRTD) completed major upgrades of its 25 year old laboratories. This initiative has allowed the Library to strengthen its scientific research effort in a number of important ways. All will help the Library identify the problems that underlie deterioration of 21st-century collections, and the scientifically-based solutions essential to protect our access to cultural and information resources. PRTD continues to review its policies and procedures on an ongoing basis to minimize energy use, chemical use, and hazardous waste generation.
Outcomes: The Library’s PRTD began to strengthen environmental protections in its programs in 2005, by eliminating the stockpiles of chemicals common in research laboratories, and by prioritizing adoption, adaption, and invention of new experimental methods. As a result, PRTD has reduced its need for chemicals and chemical waste disposal by approximately 50% over the previous decade.
The Library has added resource-efficient equipment and instruments to enhance research that includes important studies of polymer materials (the plastics used for magnetic tapes and computer disks). For example, a new direct analysis in real time (DART) mass spectrometer uses a few milliliters of solvent for each analysis of trace elements related to deterioration, a fraction of earlier requirements.
PRTD has incorporated numerous other instruments that eliminate solvents and greatly reduce the necessary sample size. A new laser ablator requires no solvents to prepare samples for inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectrometry (compared to 100 ml of solvent per experiment). Other instruments that contribute to PRTD’s reduced solvent use and increased efficiency include a thermal gravimetric analyzer, differential scanning calorimeter, image analyzer, and environmental scanning electron microscope.
The work of a preservation laboratory emphasizes non- and minimally-destructive techniques to protect collection objects that must be studied. It does so in part by reducing the volume of material required for any analysis to the minimum. This also helps assure that samples are available for comparison over a long term. PRTD’s new laser ablator can take extremely small samples, including fragile and heat-sensitive materials, and can deposit samples on a wide variety of substrates at room temperature and pressure. Besides reducing potential damage to objects, and reducing environmental impact, this substantially increases sampling efficiency.
The goal of non-destructive sampling is also aided by advances in imaging and microscopy. Imaging advances include the use of Hyperspectral Imaging Systems to examine items in various wavebands, based on differences in spectral response. The integration of light emitting diode (LED) illumination reduces light and heat on the document or object, and lowering power consumption. PTRD's Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope makes high resolution images up to 100,000 times magnification, and has a sample chamber large enough to hold small documents. This enhances the ability of these and other instruments, such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), high-resolution optical microscopy, and fiber-optics, to identify some chemical components of objects without removing samples at all. These newer techniques complement older research tools like Raman and three-dimensional fluorescent spectrometry. Using this complex of approaches reduces the need to remove samples, and the size of samples removed, to what is essential.
Environmentally protective modern chemical instruments also use less power and need less physical space. PRTD’s Agilent gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer (GC-MS), added in FY2006, uses 60% less power than the instruments it replaced. The new Waters gel permeation chromatography (GPCV ) system and Thermo Electron ICP use 66% less power than the older instruments. In addition, the Thermo Electron ICP occupies approximately 50% less floor space than its predecessor, purchased more than a decade ago. Efficiency, accuracy, and instrument sensitivity join environmental benefits as the results of these improvements.
For more information on resources and design of environmentally responsible labs, see the following related links:
- U. S. Environmental Protection Agency: Green Chemistry
- Harvard University:
Green Labs
- Department of Energy/Environmental Protection Agency: Labs 21 Low-Energy Design
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: A Design Guide for Energy-Efficient Research Laboratories
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: Environmental Energy Technologies Division. Environmental Health and Safety Resources
- U. S. Green Building Council: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Rating Systems
