Dolphin Posted March 21, 2017 Report Share Posted March 21, 2017 Hello. I'm an IB student in the first year. I chose Chem for my EE and I got accepted.. though I changed my topic now and it's not very solid yet. My research question is (not yet very solid) basically "How does temperature affect the rate of water softening by water softening resin beads?" It's basically the water softening resin beads are polymer beads that have negative charges. On top of them, there are Na+ ions attracted. When positive Ca ions meet the beads, the Na+ ions get displaced by the Ca ions. This way, the water is softened. I'm doing this topic in order to prevent limescales (calcium carbonates) forming, done by removing Ca+ ions in the water. And.. I'm not too sure about the 'variable' here. I chose Temperature, but it seems bit off to me.. like whether temperature increases/decreases the Ca+ ions getting displaced. It doesn't seem very chemistry-like. (My teacher also recommended using different Surface Area as a variable) Any opinion about this? My teacher told me to conduct an trial experiment first if Temp affects the rate of Ca+ ions getting displaced at all, but I don't even know where to get the beads and how to use them lol. If I actually do this topic, will this at least get me a D? Thanks.. I look forward to any opinions. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SC2Player Posted March 21, 2017 Report Share Posted March 21, 2017 (edited) You can get at least a D in an EE by simply just following a good structure, not making any silly mistakes, and following the mark scheme closely. Of course, I'm pretty sure that you want to do better than this, so here's my advice. According to the IB EE guide, "Chemistry is the science that deals with the composition, characterization and transformation of substances." Your EE investigates the transformation of a substance into something else, and also deals to some extent with the composition and characterization of limescales, so I'd say that your topic is related to chemistry. I can't help you much in regards to the IV - maybe others can. I'd say that your research question needs to be more refined. Maybe specify what is being softened, what the resin beads consist of, and the range of temperatures you're investigating (if you do choose to do temperature). Edited March 21, 2017 by SC2Player Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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