BPA detection

[Marnie]

Hello!
We are doing a project on BPA and used the iron oxide method to check for presence of BPA.
It did not work at all. We tested polycarb (which is made of BPA) and it tested negative.
Does anyone have any suggestions for BPA detection that are appropriate for a middle schooler to
perform.
Thank you!

[deleted-2131]

Hi Marnie,

Can you please provide a some more details about your test procedure and what type of material you tested? That would be very, very helpful to us. If you used a procedure you found somewhere else, a link to that procedure would be helpful, too.

As I did some poking around, I see tests that use iron (III) chloride, but not iron oxide. I did see some reports looking at how iron oxide changes the photodegredation of BPA. While I haven't tried the test personally, a few things come to mind. It's possible that the reaction simply didn't work (for a variety of reasons). It could also be that the levels of BPA in the object you were testing were below the detection limit of your method. Depending on what you were measuring (e.g., water in container), it's possible that not enough time passed for BPA to leach into the medium. Any additional details you can provide will help us help you to figure out what is going on.

This website sells a BPA detection kit, but I have no idea whether (or how well) it works. I can't recommend it; I haven't tried it. I don't have any connection to the company. But, here's the link anyway: http://www.home-health-chemistry.com/Bi ... ction.html.

[Marnie]

Hi-
I meant to say iron CHLORIDE.....oops.
And yes, that is the kit that we used. We even tested polycarbonate lenses and still got
a negative result.
Thank you!!

[deleted-2131]

Hi Marnie,

Hmm. Do you see any color change at all? My guess is that one of two things is happening, assuming that you're following the procedure correctly. The first is that the amount of BPA that leaches into the water (even after 5 minutes of boiling) is below the detection limit of the test kit (as I mentioned in my previous post). The second is that the $19.99 test kit isn't working as well as the $300 test kit might.

I don't have suggestions for an inexpensive alternative BPA test. However, keep in in mind that a null result (finding no BPA in the materials you tested) doesn't make the project a failure. You still asked a question, developed a procedure, ran the experiment, and collected data - you went through all the steps of the scientific method. The result might not be what you expected, and it might not be as cool as detecting BPA, but it is still a valid result. You can conclude that there wasn't enough BPA present for your method to detect it in any of the materials you tested. And, that's a perfectly fine conclusion to a project!