Please Help! Need an idea for Chemistry SL IA

[chemstudent]

My chem IA is coming up, and I need an SL idea by tomorrow, with quantitative data that I am able to measure. If anybody has any ideas, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much, whoever answers.

 

The idea of removing tarnish from silver was already rejected, mainly because it has no quantitative data.

[ShootingStar16]

My chem IA is coming up, and I need an SL idea by tomorrow, with quantitative data that I am able to measure. If anybody has any ideas, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much, whoever answers.

 

The idea of removing tarnish from silver was already rejected, mainly because it has no quantitative data.

We can't really suggest specific topics to you, but here are a list of ideas from the proposal document we got last year:

 

 

TRADITIONAL OR HANDS-ON

• Removing tarnish from silver objects (redox reactions)

• Aspirin: Syntheses using less common approaches like microwaves, purification by melting point and TLC, kinetics of the hydrolysis of aspirin to salicylic acid under various conditions

• Synthesis of the Sweetener Dulcin from the Analgesic Tylenol (allows using  titration)

• Thermal denaturation of proteins using UV light

• Thermodynamics and kinetics of 'Heater Meals"

• Investigating the kinetics of the bleaching of a dye using a colorimeter probe

• Solidification techniques and materials

• distribution constant of iodine between aqueous and non-aqueous systems

• Investigating gases in water overheated in a microwave

• investigating EDTA contents in shower cleaners

• Investigating  the dependence of overvoltage on the composition of a metal surface at which hydrogen discharge occurs, bubbles' lifetime' and IMF

• Low rank coal swelling with different solvents

• Pharmaceuticals from plants

• Investigating fluorescence using turmeric, B complex vitamins, minerals, household items.

• Iodine numbers of palm oil as compared to other cooking oils.

• An expansion of the determination of manganese in a paper clip.

• Effectiveness of different  salts on road snow removal.

• In-depth kinetics investigation into a specific investigation.

• Transition metal ions (effects of metals, ligands, oxidation states on the colour of the ion)

• Natural indicators (sources, stability, Ka values, end point range)

• Extraction of oil from spices (using different sources of spices, different storage conditions)

• Effectiveness of different water purification methods on dissolved ions.

• Melting points of group 2 metals and the different types of crystal lattice.

• The amount of nitrogen in fertilizers (reacting with excess NaOH and titrating with standard HCl)

• Thermodynamic data for ionic compounds (Ksp, can be calculated by gravimetric determination, The enthalpy of solution)

• The use of different fruits to chelate heavy metals (eg cadmium) from polluted water sources.

• The effect of temperature on vitamin C content in red pepper juice.

• Determination of residual chlorine concentration vs distance from water treatment plant

• The determination of the activation energy in a reaction by examining the relationship between temperature and the rate constant of said reaction.

• The effect of cooking method on Vitamin C content

• Henna as an effective indicator

• Free caffeine in coffee vs various teas

• Effect of roasting on caffeine content of coffee

• Ca content of lentils

• Change of [Fe] in avocados as they ripen

 

DATABASES

• NIST or any of the many excellent databases available in the web could be used to investigate trends in C-H, N-H, and O-H Bond dissociation enthalpies

• Calculating pI of proteins

• Comparing experimental data related to structure of compounds with values predicted by software such as MOPAC, WebMO or GAMESS

• Investigating intermolecular forces using  software such as SAPT

• Investigating the effect of isotopes on vibrational spectra comparing experimental results with those predicted by programmes such as Spartan Student, Molden or Tinker

• Analyzing environmental topics from databases such as those from EPA, European Environment Agency, United Nations Environment Programme, Database of Environmental Education Related Organizations Among Asian Countries or NETROnline

• Environmental issues offer endless possibilities.

• Comparing structures of drugs to their various properties - there are many large databases to access - i.e. drugbank.ca , https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chembldb/

• List of 64 free chemistry databases: http://depth-first.com/articles/2011/10/12/sixty-four-free-chemistry-databases/

 

SIMULATIONS

• Investigate the Influence of surrounding chemical environment on NMR spectra using WinDNMR and relate these structures to chemical reactions or establish changes in terms of modifications in temperature. The information can then be exported to spreadsheets for further analysis.

• Simulation investigations might determine data in a straight-forward way (like playing a computer game) but then the student should use this simulation for  processing  data, or comparing with experimental results either personally collected or from data bases taking one step beyond the simulation, to find something new.

• Students need insight and initiative when using simulations to reach expected depth.

• Simulations on their own do not meet requirements of the criteria.

• Student write their own program to simulate a process/reaction/relationship.

Also, best thing to do is find out what you're interested in and go from there. 

Edited January 27, 2016 by ShootingStar16