Blog Post Week 11

By -



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 plastics seemed to float and not sink like the others.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog Post Week 12

By -
Image
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.
Read more

WAESO Spring 2020

By -
Image
Abstract: Arizona: Lakes, Ponds, and Canals potential impacts of chemical exposures on aquatic bird species   Surface water in metro-Phoenix is contaminated due to urban pollutants, impacts from water reuse, soils, and other human interactions. Harmful contaminant levels, in addition to Nitrate-N, Phosphate- P, temperature, and dissolved O2 may possibly have negative consequences on resident and visiting bird species’ populations. Therefore, we conducted a two-year study of bird use of urban aquatic resources across the metro-Phoenix area, which has raised concerns about the transfer of chemical contaminants from surface water to bird species. The pattern that we see in bird populations in urban aquatic resources appears to be seasonal, with some study sites showing a year-round pattern of use. For highly-used aquatic sites in particular, we report concentrations of water contaminants that may be impacting aquatic bird species. Given that Phoenix is part of the Urban Bird Treaty pro
Read more

Blog Post Week 6

By -
Image
This week in lab I finished all the NaCl samples that were run through the vacuum machine. I also ran them with hydrogen peroxide for at least 3 days so that it could get rid of all the nature particles that could be perhaps ruin the measuring at the end. Once all the samples were dried there were some that had sodium chloride attached to them, so because that could have been also a percent error when measuring the plastic I had to clean them and wash them off with DI water and run them through the vacuum machine again. In the process of doing that I ran out of the filters that are attached to the machine so I really only got done with half of the 30 samples. Matt will be ordering more filters the following week but mean while I will be getting the next samples ready that will be run with potassium carbonate. I will have to shred more plastic for all 30 samples again. I have finished collecting sediment and those will be distributed. Really wish we had one of these machines that could
Read more