This study was realized with high school Chemistry teachers from the region of and around Florianópolis (SC). It examines the pedagogical implications of these teachers' views on environmental issues, and discusses the possibilities and difficulties of bringing these issues into the Chemistry classroom. The semi-structured interviews were analyzed using Textual Discourse Analysis principles. The dominance of content-based teaching and traditional pedagogical approaches appears to hinder curricular changes. Most subjects pay little heed to environmental issues and their relation to Chemistry, and endorse a view of science as neutral, and the environment as anthropocentric-views far from Green Chemistry principles.

The hydration of 2,2-dichloro-l-arylethanones was studied in water and tetrahydrofuran (THF)-water mixtures and the equilibrium constants in water were estimated for four ethanones. The process is subject to specific acid and to general base catalysis. The proton inventory technique was applied to the study of the reaction in L 2 0 and THF-LzO solutions (L = H or D). In pure water and water-rich mixtures, a very large number of protons participate in the open transition state, this number decreasing gradually with increasing water content in the mixture, until the minimum value of 2 is reached, corresponding to a cyclic, closed transition-state structure.