Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I tried extracting iron from the cereal, but it did not work at all well. I used cereal with 25% of the daily reccomended amount of iron and ground it up with my fingers. I then mixed it with water until it formed a lumpy, sloshy , slurry, and then followed the steps to let the iron particles to stick onto the magnet. At the end, there were only a few tiny specks of iron on the neodynium magnet. I was wondering, what did I do wrong? Did I have to break the cereal up more finely, so that no noticeable lumps are seen? The neodynumium magnet I used was about 1 cm across, the size of a watch battery. Do I need to use a larger magnet?

Hello Wendy11221122,

Both your ideas about why you didn't collect much iron are excellent suggestions.

I recommend that you use a blender as described in the Experimental Procedure to get the cereal well pulverized.

The magnet you describe seems like it should be strong enough. If you have a stronger magnet, try it. Be sure to pour the slurry through the bottle slowly so that you don't wash away particles already collected.

BTW, here is some background information on iron in cereals.

Good luck, WW