Blog Post Week 8

For microplastics this week I tried the beaker method separation (figure 1) since I finally had shaved down enough plastic to attempt it. I was supposed to filter my sample once I was finished separating to see what percent of microplastic we could get back but the microbiology lab needed all the filtering equipment for the class. So I decided to leave the sample sitting and filter another day. When I came back to the lab to filter Matt had made a discovery! The sample had sat for two days. Our though was that all the plastics would float because they had a lower density than the 5M NaCl solution, but this did not happen (figure 2). Instead some of the plastics sank to the bottom. We know that the filed plastic is a microplastic so we had to find a solution with a higher density. This means that we have to find a cost effective solution. Matt suggested we attempt to make a 5M NaCl and 10% sucrose solution. This still did not have a high enough density, the highest density that we had was 1.301 but it was with a 5M NaCl and 60% sucrose solution (figure 3), which is not the best. We are once again stuck until we can find a good funnel to allow to do the separation and a solution with a greater density.

Figure 1. Beaker method Seperation 

Figure 2. Sample that was left out
Microplastic settled 

Figure 3. Attempt to make solution
with greater density

Pseudomonas Update: The microbiology labs did DNA extraction of their samples and we were in charge of nanodropping. The microbiology classes also ran a PCR and we were in charge of nanodropping that as well and screening them through gel electrophoresis.