/-/https/www.sciencebuddies.org/cdn/Files/21464/5/sb-logo.png){kind=logo}
/-/https/www.sciencebuddies.org/cdn/Files/21464/5/sb-logo.png){kind=logo}
Hi,
I need to have ideas for my science fair project by Tuesday and I really want to include Bisphenol A in my project. I was doing some research and saw that many people were doing how temperature affects the release of BPA in the environment. Though the project is a great idea, it has been done before and I am hoping to get to state or county with this project and want it to be original. My science teacher suggested to see how much BPA is released when plastic degrades. Can you please help me out?
Bisphenol A
Moderators: AmyCowen, kgudger, bfinio, MadelineB, Moderators
-
nicole21
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Sun Oct 06, 2013 6:25 pm
- Occupation: student, 7th grade
- Project Question: i want to ask a question
- Project Due Date: february 13th, 2014
- Project Status: I am just starting
-
kgudger
- Moderator
- Posts: 421
- Joined: Wed Sep 17, 2008 9:20 pm
- Occupation: electronic engineer
- Project Question: n/a
- Project Due Date: n/a
- Project Status: Not applicable
Re: Bisphenol A
Hello and welcome to the forums!
I did some searching on BPA release, and found some reliable sources about plastic degradation in the ocean. http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/press ... r-bpa.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... -seas.html
It seems like understanding why ocean water degrades plastics faster than thought might be a good research topic. Is it the minerals in the salt water? The pH? If pH is involved, is ocean acidification making this worse? Do you have data for the activation energy for plastic degradation? In other words, how does temperature accelerate the degradation (a formula)? If that's well known, can you also apply the rising temperatures of the ocean to increased degradation (most likely a very small effect, I realize.) Can you apply any of this to your local environment? Even if you don't live near a coast, the article talks about boat paints, which could be an issue on any waterway.
Let us know what you come up with!
Keith
I did some searching on BPA release, and found some reliable sources about plastic degradation in the ocean. http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/press ... r-bpa.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... -seas.html
It seems like understanding why ocean water degrades plastics faster than thought might be a good research topic. Is it the minerals in the salt water? The pH? If pH is involved, is ocean acidification making this worse? Do you have data for the activation energy for plastic degradation? In other words, how does temperature accelerate the degradation (a formula)? If that's well known, can you also apply the rising temperatures of the ocean to increased degradation (most likely a very small effect, I realize.) Can you apply any of this to your local environment? Even if you don't live near a coast, the article talks about boat paints, which could be an issue on any waterway.
Let us know what you come up with!
Keith
-
nicole21
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Sun Oct 06, 2013 6:25 pm
- Occupation: student, 7th grade
- Project Question: i want to ask a question
- Project Due Date: february 13th, 2014
- Project Status: I am just starting
Re: Bisphenol A
THANK YOU!
I came up with the investigative question: does global warming affect the release of BPA from plastic in the ocean? I did a lot of research and could not figure out how to measure BPA- in water or the air. Also I came up with does the temperature of the ocean water affect how much BPA can be found in the oceans? Can you please give me a formula or ideas? Anything can help and thank you!
I came up with the investigative question: does global warming affect the release of BPA from plastic in the ocean? I did a lot of research and could not figure out how to measure BPA- in water or the air. Also I came up with does the temperature of the ocean water affect how much BPA can be found in the oceans? Can you please give me a formula or ideas? Anything can help and thank you!
-
kgudger
- Moderator
- Posts: 421
- Joined: Wed Sep 17, 2008 9:20 pm
- Occupation: electronic engineer
- Project Question: n/a
- Project Due Date: n/a
- Project Status: Not applicable
Re: Bisphenol A
Hi:
In this paper http://www.zeusinc.com/UserFiles/zeusin ... dation.pdf (which was written by a private company and biased towards their products) it is suggested that temperature degradation of plastics follows the Arrhenius equation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrhenius_equation. I know this math is a little advanced for this grade level, but it suggests that plastic degradation follows a logarithmic curve versus temperature.
With regards to BPA measurement, you can focus on plastic degradation measurement instead, assuming the BPA is released linearly as the plastic degrades.
My suggestion then is: design an experiment to measure plastic degradation vs. temperature and correlate it to an Arrhenius equation. You can then tie this to BPA release in the ocean as water temperature increases (based on the previous paper's results about how quickly plastics are degrading.)
Keith
In this paper http://www.zeusinc.com/UserFiles/zeusin ... dation.pdf (which was written by a private company and biased towards their products) it is suggested that temperature degradation of plastics follows the Arrhenius equation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrhenius_equation. I know this math is a little advanced for this grade level, but it suggests that plastic degradation follows a logarithmic curve versus temperature.
With regards to BPA measurement, you can focus on plastic degradation measurement instead, assuming the BPA is released linearly as the plastic degrades.
My suggestion then is: design an experiment to measure plastic degradation vs. temperature and correlate it to an Arrhenius equation. You can then tie this to BPA release in the ocean as water temperature increases (based on the previous paper's results about how quickly plastics are degrading.)
Keith