To face environmental requirements in the design area, it is crucial to work on the education of younger generation to sustainable design. But literature shows there is a growing need for both teachers and learners to develop pedagogical support to help the integration of sustainable concerns and tools in the education. This article focuses on Life Cycle Assessment in the scope of an ecodesign process. Through a case study, the aim is to illustrate it with firstly a succinct version of the LCA of an electric kettle and then suggestions of ecodesign strategies based on the outcomes of the LCA.

We explore experimentally the formation of water molecules from O2 and D atoms on bare grains composed of amorphous silicates analogous to those in diffuse interstellar clouds. We provide the fractions of D2O and D2O2 molecules formed on the silicate surface held at 10 K from the O2 + D pathway using RAIRS and TPD techniques. For comparison, we also study the formation of water molecules on surfaces covered with amorphous water ice representing the dense clouds.

We present a combined theoretical and experimental study of the adsorption of two pairs of organic isomers, (i) acetic acid AA (CH3COOH) and methyl formate MF (HCOOCH3), and (ii) ethanol EtOH (CH3CH2OH) and dimethyl ether DME (CH3OCH3), onto crystalline water ice surfaces at low temperatures. Both approaches show that, for each pair, the most stable isomer from a thermodynamical point of view, i.e. AA and EtOH, is also the one which is the more tightly bound to the water ice surface compared to the less stable isomers (MF and DME). This finding, which can be explained by the ability of AA or EtOH to efficiently interact with the ice surface via hydrogen bondings, may have important consequences in an astrophysical context, since it could explain why the most stable isomer is not the most abundant observed in the interstellar gas phase.

The possible role of neutral PAHs as catalysts for H2 formation in the interstellar medium is investigated by a combined experimental and density function theory study of the superhydrogenation of coronene (C24H12). The calculations suggest efficient hydrogenation of both edge and centre sites, along with competing abstraction reactions to form H2 in a series of catalytic cycles. Scanning tunneling microscopy and thermal desorption measurements have been used to provide direct evidence of the formation of superhydrogenated coronene as a result of exposure to D atoms. Lower limit estimates for the cross-sections of 1.8 × 10-17, 5.5 × 10-18 and 1.1 × 10-18 cm2 for the formation of singly, doubly and triply hydrogenated coronene are derived. The results suggest that superhydrogenated PAHs may play an important role in H2 formation in the ISM.