A STUDY OF ALKA-SELTZER IN DIFFERENT TYPES OF LIQUIDS Peyton Gozon Cary Academy 2013 ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to determine if Alka-Seltzer would dissolve quicker depending on the amount of pieces in the liquid. Alka-Seltzers are made to dissolve quickly, in a whole tablet in water to relieve headaches, Stomach pain and heart burn. AlkaSeltzer was taken and broken apart into 2, 4, and 8 even pieces, Also there was a whole tablet being tested. The 4 pieces of AlkaSeltzer had the best time dissolving time, this is because the 4 Figure 1: Basic idea of the nucleation process. The small circles are the co2 pieces is the right size for the quickest nucleation process (The bubbles rising off nucleation process is where CO2 forms in small divots on the AlkaSeltzer, and the CO2 is released), and the 2 pieces took slightly longer to dissolve, and the whole tablet took the longest, however 8 pieces took longer than the 4 pieces because the tablet is too small for the nucleation process. This is because the Nucleation process forms co2 around the tablet, dissolving the tablet, in this case reducing the pH of the liquid. However if the site for the Nucleation process is smaller, then it slows down, but if there are pieces then that is almost 2x as fast as the whole tablet. INTRODUCTION In the year 1931, the Alka-Seltzer tablet was made. This tablet relieved heartburn, upset stomachs, acid indigestion with headaches and body aches. Alka-Seltzer tablets contain mainly 1916mg of sodium bicarbonate, 325mg of Aspirin, and 1000mg of anhydrous citric acid. There are some experiments that have been done before, even at this school. Enoch Kuan did an experiment that tested how long it took an Alka-Seltzer to dissolve in different types of liquids and amounts of the liquid. In water the Alka-Seltzer dissolved the quickest and it dissolved slower in sprite. It was also found that the more liquid the Alka-Seltzer tablet was put in, the quicker it dissolved. There are some experiments that have been done before. Enoch Kuan did an experiment that tested how long it took an Alka-Seltzer to dissolve in different types of liquids and the different amounts of the liquid. In water the Alka-Seltzer dissolved the fastest and it dissolved slower in sprite. It was also found that the more liquid the Alka-Seltzer tablet was put in, the quicker it dissolved. Alka-Seltzer is put in water, drank and then the stomach, after some time, is feeling better. Alka-Seltzer works fast because it is already in a solution when it is taken, so it is absorbed quickly. That means there is rapid relief from the stomach, heartburn, acid indigestion or headache. Alka seltzer contains Acetylsalicylic acid or aspirin, Citric acid and Sodium bicarbonate. Alka-Seltzer reactions, and they create sodium citrate (anti acid) and sodium acetylsalicylate (paint reliever). Sodium citrate is a proven substance for neutralizes acids. It acts as a buffer, to the gastric acid lowers the concentration of the acid. Things that do this called anti-acids. Acetylsalicylic acid is aspirin; however the advantage to AlkaSeltzer is that the acetylsalicylic acid is because Alka-Seltzer is absorbed in water. This allows the acid to get down quicker and go to the small intestine where it starts to relieve pain. Carbon dioxide is an odorless, colorless gas and is one of the gasses that make up part of the atmosphere (Carbon dioxide is about 394.39 ppm (parts per million)). Around the year 1630 a Flemish scientist Jan van Helmont found out that some different vapors differed from air. He created the term gas to describe these vapors. In 1756 Joseph Black probed that carbon dioxide (or called fixed air) is in the atmosphere and that it forms compounds when mixed with some other chemicals. The amount of carbon dioxide has been significantly increased since the mid 1800’s because of the factories producing it. Carbon dioxide is heavier than air. Carbon dioxide is known as co2, because it contains 1 carbon atom and 2 oxygen atoms. A ball and stick diagram of carbon dioxide: Figure 3: Carbon Carbon dioxide is used in many things that are used every day. One of the Dioxide "ball and stick" main things is it creates “sparkling water” or water that fizzes. The sparkling model. water is normally drunk as a carbonated soft drink. It is also used to create the candy Pop Rocks and Baker’s Yeast. Carbon dioxide is also used in the process of wine making. It gets turned into “dry ice” or a solid very cold form of carbon dioxide. The dry ice is used to cool down large amounts of grapes quickly to slowdown and to prevent spontaneous fermentation by wild yeast, spoiling the grapes and reducing the sugar in the grape must, which lowers the alcohol content. Carbon dioxide has a lot of practical uses like the fire extinguisher because fires need to have oxygen in order to “live” or to keep burning. The carbon dioxide replaces the oxygen Figure 2: Main symptoms of carbon dioxide at different carbon dioxide levels. and then the fire starts to die out. Liquid carbon dioxide is used to keep some refrigerators cool. However carbon dioxide can also harm someone. If the concentrations get to 1% (10,000 ppm) it can make a person drowsy. It the concentrations get to 7 – 10% it could cause suffocation, headaches, visual and hearing problems and making the person go unconsciousness for a few minutes to an hour. Carbon dioxide is still a very useful thing to have around. Stomach acid also known as Gastric acid, has a pH of 1.5 – 3.5. It contains about 5000 ppm of hydrochloric acid, large quantities of potassium chloride and sodium chloride. The cells that line the walls of the stomach produce the acid to help digest the different foods in the body. The presence of Gastric acid was first found by a USA army surgeon, William Beaumont around 1830. Stomach acid is created by the lining stomach cells, when they split chloride and hydrogen ions. The cells that do this are called parietal cells, they have proteins that pumps out hydrogen ions out of the cell and potassium ions into the cell. Both ions are positively charged, and the proteins prevent an imbalance of positively and negative charge. The ions that where pumped out are pushed into the stomach, where they pass over a pH neutral area (the mucus that lines the walls) and into the stomach. While this happens some other cells in the stomach produce bicarbonate, a base that is used to buffer the liquid to it does not become too acidic. People normally will take something like an Alka-Seltzer when the acid is too acidic because AlkaSeltzer has some bicarbonate in it. MATERIALS AND METHODS The items used in the experiments were 500 mL beakers, orange juice, white distilled vinegar, lemon juice, Alka-Seltzer, pH strips, and water (room temperature, hot and, cold. Alka-Seltzer was placed into 100mL of orange juice, lemon juice, and white distilled vinegar. The starting pH of the three liquids was taken before the Alka-Seltzer. After the Alka-Seltzer dissolved, the final pH was also taken and written down. This was repeated 3 times and an average was taken. Alka-Seltzer was taken and broken into 2, 4, and 8 pieces, there was also a whole tablet, and placed in 100mL of water to find the dissolve time. The tablets were put together in one as one beaker would have the 8 pieces, while another one would have the 4 pieces. While they dissolved the time was recorded. This was repeated 3 times and an average was taken. Alka-Seltzer was taken and broken into 4 pieces, powder and one was left whole, and placed into 50mL of White Distilled Vinegar. The pH of the White Distilled Vinegar was taken every 5 sec and recorded up to 125 sec because this was the time of the first whole tablet and the one that took the longest time to dissolve. This was repeated 3 times and an average was taken. Alka-Seltzer was put into 100mL of 77, 21 and 15°c water. The time was taken to see how long it took to dissolve in the water. The time was taken while the Alka-Seltzer was dissolving. This was repeated 3 times and an average was taken. pH of liquid RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Before PH After PH Lemon Juice Orange Juice White Distilled Vinegar Type of liquid Figure 4: The pH of before and after an Alka-Seltzer was put into each liquid It was found that Lemon Juice had the most dramatic change in pH. This is because Lemon Juice starts with a very acidy pH of 2, there for the Alka-Seltzer does what it was made to do, neutralize the acid. Also the stomachs pH is from 1.5 to 3.5, so Alka-Seltzer is made to tackle low pH liquids. However the Orange Juice’s pH only changed by 1 pH. This is because AlkaSeltzer is made to neutralize the pH of something, and 7 is the base pH. The White Distilled Vinegar only changed by 2 pH, and ended with 6 as its final pH because Alka-Seltzer was made to change the pH of liquids like Gastric Acid (Stomach acid), and dissolve in things like water. 60 Time to dissolve (sec) 50 40 30 20 10 0 0 2 4 6 8 10 Amount of tablet parts Figure 5: The time taken to dissolve in 100mL of water. It was found that it was most effective to break apart the tablet into 4 pieces when trying to dissolve the tablet quicker. This is because Alka-Seltzer relies on a thing called the Nucleation process. The Nucleation process is where tiny pockets of air form on the Alka-Seltzer, and they release carbonating the water (most of the time) and dissolves the chemicals in Alka-Seltzer. There are 12 different locations for the Nucleation process to happen, all the tops, bottoms and sides, releasing much more gas. Also using a whole tablet took the longest, because that means there are only 3 areas for the tablet to do the Nucleation process, the top, bottom and side, there for slowing it down. However when the tablet is broken into 8 pieces, it is slowed down also, because there is too much gas being released at once so not as much water can get back onto the tablet. 8 pH of the vinegar 7 6 5 4 Tablet 3 4 pieces 2 Powder 1 0 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 Time (sec) Figure 6: The pH of 50mL of vinegar over 125 sec when there is a whole tablet, 4 pieces or a powder. It was found that the Tablet and the 4 pieces both turned the White Distilled Vinegar’s pH into 7, however the Powder did not. This is because the Tablet and 4 pieces have more surface area for the Nucleation process; however there are more sides for the Nucleation process on the 4 pieces. Also the 4 pieces have proven to be more effective in the earlier above. However the Powder was not very effective, as the small places are too small for much Nucleation; effectively slowing it down. Also some of the powder will not dissolve, but instead sit on top of the Vinegar, as they are the pieces too small for the Nucleation process, also lowering how effective it is. Temperature of water (c) 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 0 20 40 60 80 100 Time taken to dissolve (sec) Figure 7: How long the Alka-Seltzer took to dissolve in different temperatures (c) of water. It was found that Alka-Seltzer dissolves a lot quicker in hot water, as the molecules are moving around franticly in hot water, so that speeds up the Nucleation process and pull the Alka-Seltzer apart. The molecules move quicker because hot water is normal water, but with heat energy added in. The heat adds increases the kinetic energy for the molecules, making them move quicker. However in cold water, the molecules have the cold energy added onto them, reducing the kinetic energy kinetic energy for the molecules therefore slowing them down. In normal temperature (room temperature) the molecules are balanced out and it dissolves them at a normal rate of about 20 sec. CONCLUSION It was found that Alka-Seltzer dissolves the quickest in hot water, over the other materials tested, this is due to the fact that Alka-Seltzer is manufactured to dissolve in water and to dissolve quickly. This data could be helpful for those who have an upset stomach, heartburn, or headache, Alka-Seltzer dissolves the fastest in hot water, this is useful for those who want to be able to drink the Alka-Seltzer quick, however room temperature water is also about as good, for those who can wait and don’t want to burn themselves. The results were not surprising as the Alka-Seltzer was made to be put into water, and heat adds on a second energy source for the molecules, speeding the molecules up. In the future it would be interesting to determine if the Alka-Seltzer dissolves quicker or slower when put into a compound liquid like hydroxide, or if the Alka-Seltzer was put into a liquid combination to see if the compound changes the speed of which an Alka-Seltzer dissolves. CITATIONS Bryanfields. "The Best Medicine - How Does It Work?" Bryanfields, 10 Feb. 08. Web. 18 Feb. 1012. CO2 Now. "CO2 Now." CO2 Now. CO2 Now, n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2013. Live Strong. "How Is Stomach Acid Made?" LIVESTRONG.COM. Live Strong, 10 Feb. 2008. Web. 10 Feb. 2013. Wikipedia contributors. "Carbon dioxide." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 21 Feb. 2013. Web. 22 Feb. 2013. Wikipedia contributors. "Gastric acid." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 21 Feb. 2013. 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