Autumn Jones

November 1, 2012
Chemistry Honors
Foul Water Lab Conclusion
In this lab we attempted to get a sample of foul water to a pure state. We used three different
methods of filtration which were oil separation, sand filtration, and charcoal adsorption.
By the end of the entire process, our water was much better than at the start. It changed from a
mustard yellow color to being clear after the last step. There was also a kind of clean glass smell verses
the original sickening grease odor. The clarity was great in that we could actually see through it clearly.
After filtering, we had a total of 83.9 mL of water, 85.6 % of clean water recovered. We lost 14.3 % of
water in the process. The average of water recovered for our class was 78.5%, which means we did really
well in comparison. The median, or the middle number, for our class was 81.4 %. The range was 38 %.
Throughout this whole lab, I learned many important concepts. The Tyndall Effect and electrical
conductivity test can determine if a water sample is pure, or just clean. The Tyndall effect is the
scattereing of light in a mixture. Electricity doesnt flow through pure water which is why the electrical
conductivity test was positive for ours. Another concept is the things I discovered about oil layers. Oil
floats and also separates from water because it is less dense. This makes two different layers which was
easier to separate the substances, since it was halfway done for us already. During the sand filtration I
learned that grains of sand are able to block solids from filtering through. Odor and color is able to be
adsorbed by charcoal. Distillation was explained as being a process of separation by boiling points. We
did not test this, but we learned that it is when water is boiled, condensed to water vapor, and the distillate
is collected afterwards.
Although my partner and Is water was fairly pure, like every experiment, we had flaws. During
the oil separation, we took out some water along with the oil. This could have been prevented with a more
steady watch over the graduated cylinder & pipet. We could have let the water drip from the tube after the
charcoal adsorption a couple minutes longer because we did have a bit of time left after we cleaned up.
A couple questions crossed my mind while doing the lab. The first is, what else can charcoal
adsorb? If we tested a sample of water that we were able to taste first, like one with salt, would the taste
be adsorbed in the charcoal? I also wondered if other materials other than sand could filter the same way.
If so, which ones? Those may be good experiments to try out.