S-STEM/TRAIN Scholar Jasmine Patricio

This week in Lab I was able to finish my graph for the extractions of microplastics, this means I will be able to continue working on my conclusions that was not able to finish last semester. Though notice that in SPI 6 (Polystyrene) there is bar missing which is suppose to be the Potassium Carbonate (K2CO3). The reason that this section will not have a bar of itself is because there was a problem with the percent recovery from it and the stand deviation from it. When the plastic dried out and I weighed it, it was surprisingly much heavier than it has began with. This could either mean that the plastic absorbed the Hydrogen peroxide/ DI Water and made it more dense or that the plastic wasn't completely dry. At the moment I will finish writing my report with this missing bar and will have to include this error in my conclusion claims. Until further notice to redo this part of my project. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving break (:

This week in Lab the only plastic I am waiting to weigh is SPI6. The reason this one is taking longer is because when I rinsed it with DI water it soaked some of the water up which meant I had to leave it in longer to dry out than the other plastics. Then when it was completely done drying I put the hydrogen peroxide to get rid of any nature products that could have been left behind. Right now they are still drying, until they are completely dry is when I will then be weighing it and that will conclude my last sample for weighing. After that I will finally have all data to analyze. I will be determining which extraction method/ water solution works best on microplastics. I will also be determining plastic loss in all three different solutions and see if there was a was to better change the protocol that the NOAA developed for extraction of microplastics from sediments.

This week in lab I was able to finish the extraction of the micro plastics with the Potassium Carbonate, they were then rinsed with DI water through the vacuum sucker while I tried to remove the small leftover sediment. Then they were put in the heating oven so that they were dry. For the final step I put Hydrogen Peroxide in all of the sediments so that it could dissolve any nature particles left, that could affect the final measurements. This will be my final solution run that I will do. What is left to do is just analyze the data. Some of the outcomes from this solution that was different from the others was that this one smelled like the incubator that holds bacteria in the lab room, Matt said it smelled like a swamp or something but it was a really disturbing odor. Also this solution was a bit more hazardous than the others ones because it could have caused skin irritation. With this solution though it was very easy to separate the sediment from the plastic because all 1-6 pla...

This week in lab, I was able to finish all the extraction of the micro-plastics through the funnels with the Potassium Carbonate solution. Through the last trial the plastic that we shredded was actually it’s correct size, I thought it was going to be difficult to extract but most of the sediment floated through the solution on al 1-6 plastics. The next step would be to use the vacuum sucker and rinse the the sediment and solution with DI H2O. Then dry it and weigh it to compare all the differences. After, that would be completely the last step to this project and analyze the data.

This week in Lab I was able to finish all the separation of the microplastics into their appropriate containers. I also got started on the making of the Potassium Carbonate. We produced 45% of K2CO3. Materials: 2 (2,000 mL Flask) Potassium Carbonate 1 ( 1000 mL Graduated Cylinder) Weighing scale/ weighing boats Procedure: Place items 1-4 under the chemical hood before starting. To produce 45% K2CO3 only need to be wearing gloves. Weight 450g of K2CO3 and add to the 2,000 mL Flask Weight 1,000 of DIH2O with the Graduated Cylinder and put it in the 2,000 Flask Cover the top with parafilm Stir it until the water is clear Repeat the same steps to the other 2,000 Flask