Chemistry project??

boxer.fan

Hey guys,

Just wondering if anyone here may be able to help, I am an honours degree science student and have been given the task of coming up with a suitable chemistry based project for my final year. The lecturers have strongly recommended that we come up with something new as opposed to the usual water and soil analysis stuff that has been covered to infinity in previous years. Have racked my brain trying to think outside the box but falling short. Maybe someone has some good advice??

Thanks in advance.

El Siglo

boxer.fan wrote: »

Hey guys,

Just wondering if anyone here may be able to help, I am an honours degree science student and have been given the task of coming up with a suitable chemistry based project for my final year. The lecturers have strongly recommended that we come up with something new as opposed to the usual water and soil analysis stuff that has been covered to infinity in previous years. Have racked my brain trying to think outside the box but falling short. Maybe someone has some good advice??

Thanks in advance.

Have you ever considered stable isotope mass spec for sediment/plants/animals etc... (i.e. δ13C and δ15N) it's been used on everything, trophic enrichment in animals, trafficking patterns of illegal drugs etc...

chem

Uranium in Donegal? Believe it or not. Ireland is believed to have some very rich uranium ore in Donegal. The government wont allow large scale prospecting. But if you took samples from, caves, quarries, cliffs etc and worked out the levels of ore that would be well outside the box

ianobrien

boxer.fan wrote: »

something new as opposed to the usual water and soil analysis stuff

What about looking for the typical water impurities in food products? ie the impurities found in water getting processed forward into the finished food product?

If you're very brave, consider pesticides/herbazides in food.

Or the biodegradability of printing inks (as I look at the GC chromatograms on the desk next to me)

Jokesetal

boxer.fan wrote: »

Hey guys,

I am an honours degree science student and have been given the task of coming up with a suitable chemistry based project for my final year.

What's your course and what equipment can you get your hands on? Always good to look up some recent papers for the "new technology".

boxer.fan

Jokesetal wrote: »

What's your course and what equipment can you get your hands on? Always good to look up some recent papers for the "new technology".

Analytical chemistry

Not much "new technology" at my disposal. GC/MS, HPLC, AAS, FTIR, UVvis etc off top of my head.:rolleyes:

ianobrien

boxer.fan wrote: »

Analytical chemistry

Not much "new technology" at my disposal. GC/MS, HPLC, AAS, FTIR, UVvis etc off top of my head.:rolleyes:

What type of mass spec and what sources have you? If you've access to a TOF or Orbitrap you can try high mass accuracy detection of compounds. It works by using the mass spec going to 4 or 5 decimal places. As a result, you can practically dispense with chromatography.

Another is a source study on the effects of different ionisation on similar molecules. It can be combined with above.

Although, I imagine that there is only one or two mass specs and they may be in high demand

Jokesetal

There's plenty of stuff you can do in that case. As pharmaceutical and medical devices are the in-thing, why not come up with someting along these lines:

Release rates of API form different branded tablets; which works fastest?
which brand will ease the hangover quickest?

Variation of sugar in api release from tablets: Design a drug tablet that will release API after 1, 2 or 3 hours at stomach pH (plenty of Core/shell variations to look at)

Design a polymer coating for a medical device and again look at API release? if you choose something like ibuprofen then you can analyse it by HPLC handy enough.

Monitor the emissions of chemicals from household products by GC-MS or HPLC (you could do some nice extraction work here)

Measure the rate of amine emission from different cheeses (:eek:)

Design a chemical sensor for detecting x, y or z (electrochemical, optical, etc.)

These are just a few general suggestions, after that you get nerdy! if you're thinking of a postgrad then it might pay to look up what potential supervisers are working on and prove yourself? (I know many that have tried this route .....)

dirtyden

boxer.fan wrote: »

Hey guys,

Just wondering if anyone here may be able to help, I am an honours degree science student and have been given the task of coming up with a suitable chemistry based project for my final year. The lecturers have strongly recommended that we come up with something new as opposed to the usual water and soil analysis stuff that has been covered to infinity in previous years. Have racked my brain trying to think outside the box but falling short. Maybe someone has some good advice??

Thanks in advance.

What may be interesting and relatively topical and with a strong analytical vent is analysing some of the junk that they sell in these headshops and correlating to health effects. This could also incorproate some pharamacology, if you have a a few lab rats available,

discus

dirtyden wrote: »

What may be interesting and relatively topical and with a strong analytical vent is analysing some of the junk that they sell in these headshops and correlating to health effects. This could also incorproate some pharamacology, if you have a a few lab rats available,

Thats a great idea. Breakdown a few headshop products to see what is active in them. Simple in theory, but will require some work on extraction, optimising your chromatography, identification of your actives etc!

Can I suggest to boxer.fan that if you do this (or whatever project you might do), that it might be worth finding out if there is anyone in a college/uni in Ireland doing work on it. They might be willing to help you. Or even get back to us here and see if anyone can help!

if you're thinking of a postgrad then it might pay to look up what potential supervisers are working on and prove yourself? (I know many that have tried this route .....)

I did this for my final year project - picked it to suit a summer job/bursary thing I was applying for. Worked out quite well!