Water+Purification+Lab

Austin Gebbia, Courtney McLaughlin, Jimmy Zurich Water Purification Lab Analysis September 20th, 2011

Our original water sample was absolutely horrific and looked like it had been pulled from a sewer. This mixture has large numbers of **atoms** from many different **elements.** It was dark brown, had particles floating all around, and did not look drinkable or purified. Our mission too purify this water began when we set the water bottle down and began observing what was in front of us. It was clearly a **heterogenous** mixture, but too be more specific, a **suspension**. This is because it had large, dispersed solid particles that can settle out or be separated by filtration, which is exactly what follows. We got our equipment, and got too work. The group measured the liquid in a graduated cylinder, which came out too be 93 mL. The next direction was too separate the oil and water, which changed the **physical property,** as well as the **chemical property.** We knew there was oil in our mixture because of the evident **density** difference. The oil was floating atop the other liquid, and the goal was too separate the two. We emptied all of the oil into numerous test tubes, with a dropper. The free radicals, which looked like pepper or seasoning of some sort, were laying at the bottom of the graduated cylinder. The color of the liquid had an olive tone, more too the dark side. Now, you can clearly see that their was one solid **density** through out because their was no liquid floating on another liquid. It smelled like a combination of vinegar, oil, and seasonings. This was not a **compound** because we broke it down into similar substances by physical means. We took the measurement after the oil-water separation, getting 57 mL. This measure shows that the number increasingly dropped after the oil was removed, showing that there certainly was a lot of oil involved too begin with. As a group, we thought "what could we possibly do to get this water too be clean?!?" The following step was sand/gravel filtration. This involved a paper cup, gravel, and clearly sand. I had too poke holes in the bottom of the cup, so the water can escape one step closer to purification! We measured 1cm of sand into the cup, as well as gravel. The gravel was put down first, at the bottom of the cup, so that all of the sand wouldn't seep through. We held this over a 150 mL beaker as we poured our dirty water into the cup. The sand **molecules** trapped some dirt, leaving the water seeping through the cup with barely any free radicals, in a clear-olive color. It smelt like a mix of vinegar and oil still, but definitely not as strong as the beginning. The consistency of the liquid went down, it is now not as oily and is more water like. This step shows us that our water is almost purified, but not yet! After the sand filtration, our water measures dropped increasingly, as it went down to 39 mL. This shows that maybe this process isn't so efficient because you are loosing so much water, but only time will tell as the steps continue. The next step is the charcoal adsorption, where we take a spoonful of charcoal and dump it into our 150 mL beaker. We them mix this **solution**, and dump it back into our original water bottle. After this, we get a funnel as well as filter paper, fold it in half, put it in the funnel, put the funnel over the beaker, and pour the charcoal water in. This drips and drips for a while until our final **filtrated, homogenous** solution. This is where the 5th and final step comes in, filtration! Every little droplet looks clear in color, also known as transparent. This is evidence that the filter paper and charcoal work together to create both **physical changes** and **chemical changes** because the chemical identity changed, as well as an interaction of matter that results in the formation of a new substance - too create what is now **filtrated**, purified water. The final measure of our water is 32 mL. It has no smell, looks fresh, and is a completely drastic change from the beginning. In the end, the purified water was mostly compromised of only two **elements** - hydrogen and oxygen, which was our ultimate goal.