Chemistry EE - Would this be a good topic?

[Emmi]

Hi there, I know that my school will soon begin the extended essay process. I was pondering doing mine in chemistry, and after looking around for ideas I found something that interested me. What I don't know is whether or not it would be suitable as a topic.

It's on catalysis, and while I don't have a particular reaction in mind yet, the general topic is:

"the effect of a catalyst on a chemical reaction to determine which results in the shortest reaction time"

I would use a few different catalysts (two, three, I don't know yet) and use them in the reaction and compare the rates of reaction for each.

Is this good? Should I change it? Suggestions?

Edited January 28, 2011 by emilynev

[dessskris]

Do you realise that you need to write 4000 words on that...?

I would say that it's too narrow. It would be just right for a design IA though.. You are simply comparing a number of catalysts what? It can just be around 5 pages at the maximum, I guess.. Broaden it a little bit.

[nametaken]

I think that your idea is reasonable although you must consider that it is a 4000 word essay....and the question is, do you think that you can write a 4000 word essay on the idea you have specified? I would agree that you need to broaden it a bit more.....

[Emmi]

Thanks for the quick replies! Looking at it now it is kind of too narrow. Do you think this is still a good topic to investigate, or should I look into other topics? Like, stick with the topic but come up with something else to test? Or change it altogether?

[dessskris]

I suggest looking into other aspects of chemistry because it's kind of hard if you just want to compare catalysts because a catalyst can only catalyse several reactions, not all reactions, and for one reactions there are not so many catalysts you can use so yeah it's a bit hard.. Unless you can get other aspects of catalytic reactions that you can investigate

So try to look into other topics first.. If you can't get a good one then you may go back to this one but broaden it.

[Emmi]

Desy I looked into other areas and I came up with a new idea instead:

It involves extracting Vitamin C from strawberries (which actually contain more of it than oranges ) that I would obtain from several different states in the USA and see if their Vitamin C levels are the same/different.

Would this work as a topic? Is it too overdone?

[dessskris]

I wish your question wasn't directed to me because I actually have no idea lol cause I am not doing a science EE and was not really interested in it thus I do not know much :/ but anyways...

Now, see, how would you extract the vitamin C? simple extraction or complicated? Are you able to do it in your school lab? How long will the experiment take? Does your school have all the apparatus needed? (<-- made me not want to do a science EE, limited apparatus and chemicals at my sch lab ) Are you able to keep the other conditions (controlled variables) constant?

And since you are comparing different strawberries from several states in the US, what do you think is a factor that affects the vitamin C level in the strawberries (if there is any difference)? As in, don't you think it's more of a genetics factor? Or maybe the environment where it was planted? Or you may need to find out what the farmer put when they planted it (fertiliser or any chemical that can affect vitamin C level)..

What I mentioned just now might not be that relevant though, I don't know. You may want to talk to your teacher so you'll get a better response than this

[Mia92]

Hi, for my extended essay I researched vitamin C content in storage conditions which is pretty similar to this strawberries experiment.

ITs a really easy topic to do,, instead of extracting the vitamin C, you could just measure the vitamin C content (titration using d.c pip and using ascorbic acid as a standard measure)

and you can then measure the impacts in society, which may be higher in a more broad example rather than strawberries.. just some ideas..

As for the catalyst idea, i think it's a pretty good - you can make a detailed write up on the experiment,, and perhaps look at a widely used industrial process then look at economical/sustainability of the process on a large scale and then analyse the best fitting for different situations (for example nitrate fertilisers can be made on a very large scale, or many farms have the ability to make them on site)

just some ideas

[Emmi]

Sorry Desy I just added your name in there because you were the last one to comment

I don't know whether or not we have everything at my school (I need to check).

As to why I think they would differ, I was maybe thinking about the environment where they were planted and the chemicals added to it could affect the Vitamin C levels.

Mia - thanks for the ideas! I'm just trying to come up with ideas at this time. I'm not even certain I am going to do a Chemistry EE! Just brainstorming that is...

[Ad Meliora]

Hey Emily

Doing an EE in Chemistry is not a bad idea at all... in fact, if you have a well defined idea, such as Vit. C content, or the effect of catalysts, I believe it is specific enough. Maybe rephrasing your question would help you from restricting your idea... also, specificity means you have to explain which type of catalysts affect which kind of reaction, etc etc.

Here's a little advice for doing a Chem EE in general:

1) Make sure you choose a topic you are genuinely interested in. Though it may not seem likely in the beginning, you will be required to conduct a little more research towards the end, especially when you are explaining the scope and validity of your results. That being said, some research is also necessary to support your rationale and hypothesis in the beginning, prior to conducting your experiments.

2) Make sure your school / lab has all the necessary equipment and reagents you will need. For measuring the efficiency of catalysts, you will need to look at rates and kinetics, and you will need to design your experiment such that you can measure things like change in temparature, pH etc - whatever you can see happening as a result of the reaction, with respect to time. Though it sounds complicated, all such experiments can be performed quite easily without using sophisticated equipment.

3) Plan ahead of time to do multiple replicates for each kind of trial. For any kind of experiment, reproducibility is a must - and when you can't control that too well, doing a statistical analysis (hence the need for replicates) certainly helps determine if your results are consistent... and also, how much error is present, etc.

If you want more specific information, please contact me, or consider looking through my website in my signature.

Hopefully this helps!