In this project, we answered "How can we use Chemistry to support the chemical treatment of wastewater and various clean water initiatives?" My group decided on desalination in order to find a conclusion of how to take salts out efficiently. Taking out these salts would make water safer to drink. Therefore, we experimented on how to filtrate water. We began brainstorming for this project to see which route we would take for it. We decided to build a filter and experiment what's the most efficient way to extract salt from the water. The materials we used was plastic tubing, any type of containers, hot plate, and aluminum foil.
Once we created our filter, we had to make salt close enough from ocean salt. We first had to convert moles to liters in order to use the right measurement when we found out the mixtures. Due to us only having sodium chloride and magnesium sulfate, we had to add the molar masses up for each. Therefore, allowing us to find the amount of grams needed. We had 29 grams of sodium chloride and 4.2 grams of magnesium sulfate. Although, salt does have other substances, they are however too small to measure, leaving us with the two big components; sodium chloride and magnesium sulfate. As we found the measurements, we crushed them as much as possible in order for it to dissolve easier in the boiling water. Once we put the products in the water, we began boiling it. We put tin foil on top of the container to collect all the heat, therefore getting it to travel in the plastic tubing, creating clean water. Going through our trials, we noticed we didn't get enough water as we wanted. When the trials were complete, it smelled like plastic due to our plastic tube melting. However, we tested the pH of the two trials we had. Unfortunately, the pH dropped super low, making our water super acidic. We then realized that we did not clean out our tubing nor our containers to make sure there was nothing in it. We also brainstormed of how we could get more water through the tubing in order to get more results. We thought of wrapping the tube around with ice to help bring more of the steam from the water we were boiling back to water. We also fixed the plastic tubing and put it at a certain angle in order for it not to get melted again. With this, more results came through. We tested the pH again and was closer to the neutral zone, meaning it was safe to drink.
Content:
pH-Expressing the acidity or alkalinity of a solution in a logarithmic scale. 7 is neutral, anything above is alkaline, anything below is acidic.
Solute-Minor component in solution that gets dissolved. Multiple contaminants found in water that must be taken out.
Solution-Liquiding mixture in which minor component is uniformly distributed within major component.
Solvent-Able to dissolve other substances.
TDS-Total dissolved solids(salts)
Once we created our filter, we had to make salt close enough from ocean salt. We first had to convert moles to liters in order to use the right measurement when we found out the mixtures. Due to us only having sodium chloride and magnesium sulfate, we had to add the molar masses up for each. Therefore, allowing us to find the amount of grams needed. We had 29 grams of sodium chloride and 4.2 grams of magnesium sulfate. Although, salt does have other substances, they are however too small to measure, leaving us with the two big components; sodium chloride and magnesium sulfate. As we found the measurements, we crushed them as much as possible in order for it to dissolve easier in the boiling water. Once we put the products in the water, we began boiling it. We put tin foil on top of the container to collect all the heat, therefore getting it to travel in the plastic tubing, creating clean water. Going through our trials, we noticed we didn't get enough water as we wanted. When the trials were complete, it smelled like plastic due to our plastic tube melting. However, we tested the pH of the two trials we had. Unfortunately, the pH dropped super low, making our water super acidic. We then realized that we did not clean out our tubing nor our containers to make sure there was nothing in it. We also brainstormed of how we could get more water through the tubing in order to get more results. We thought of wrapping the tube around with ice to help bring more of the steam from the water we were boiling back to water. We also fixed the plastic tubing and put it at a certain angle in order for it not to get melted again. With this, more results came through. We tested the pH again and was closer to the neutral zone, meaning it was safe to drink.
Content:
pH-Expressing the acidity or alkalinity of a solution in a logarithmic scale. 7 is neutral, anything above is alkaline, anything below is acidic.
Solute-Minor component in solution that gets dissolved. Multiple contaminants found in water that must be taken out.
Solution-Liquiding mixture in which minor component is uniformly distributed within major component.
Solvent-Able to dissolve other substances.
TDS-Total dissolved solids(salts)
Conclusion: There were positives that I can build off of this project in order to grow as a student. I took more charge into my role in this group because I wanted to get things done. I wanted to know what the outcome would be if I changed either minor or major things in the experiments we did. This increased my communication skills. I also figured out calculations and how to convert moles to liters to find the exact measurements for our products. This increased my critical thinking skills. Although, part of my group was gone most days when we were working on this project, I took advantage of the time that we were given because I was there everyday. I asked questions and was open minded onto how I could make our filter better or finding a simpler way of getting the water clean in order to get better results. This increased my collaboration skills towards my group. Unfortunately, a peak that I could've done better in this project was to assign tasks for my group members. Some of my group mates did not do much, I should have offered them if they wanted to help instead of me constantly doing it by myself. This could've improved me and my group's self management. Another peak that we could've done better was presenting and be more thorough in each slide we presented. Even though it was simple and people understood our experiment, there wasn't enough science in the project in order for us to expand our learning in this class. I think we should focus more on the science in the experiment rather than what we did, how we did it, and what our results were in the experiment we produced. If we added more science into it, we would draw more attention with our product. Overall, our project was complete and successful. Each trial that we did, we gained knowledge and changed a few things in order to make the water the best it could be.