Abstract: In fulfillment of a requirement for Chemistry’s Instrumental Analysis Lab II, students will use high performance liquid chromatography to determine the quantity of aspartame in diet drinks.

Abstract: A series of experiments will be conducted to test micro-aggregates made of inexpensive materials as sorbents in the removal of organic dye from an aqueous solution. Micro-aggregates will be made using various kaolin and starch ratios. Spectrophotometer will be used to trace adsorption of methyl red on micro-aggregates. The Langmuir isotherm equation will be used to compare adsorption efficiency of micro-aggregates prepared on different kaolin-starch ratios. Adsorption efficiency higher than 85% is expected. This study was made possible through Minnesota Space Grant Consortium and Center for Environmental, Earth, and Space Studies funding.

Abstract: The experiment considers the effects of soil tillage on a second generation of plants when the preceding generation was grown under differing variables of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and phosphorus.  First, alfalfa is grown under these differing variables in order to create differing soil mediums for the second generation plants (corn).  The main rationale of the experiment is creating an ideal soil in which to grow corn without requiring tillage.  This ideal soil has two main components.  First is the alfalfa’s root system, which upon decomposition opens up root channels for the corn roots to grow into.  Second is the AMF’s network of hyphae that were symbiotically connected to the alfalfa roots.  This network remains after the alfalfa dies and is available for the corn to form a symbiotic association with.  It is my hypothesis that access to this existing hyphal network will lead to faster growth of the corn.

Abstract: The removal of pollutants from water is an important issue in continuously increasing global demand for freshwater. Adsorption is technique that is widely practiced in removal of hazardous compounds from aquatic environment. For this process to be economically attractive the adsorbent must be cheap, nontoxic, environmentally neutral and readily available. The goals of this study are a) to assess the efficiency of kaolin xanthan meso-particles in removal of methyl red from aquatic environment, and b) to study the effect of kaolin-xanthan ratio on adsorption of methyl red. Spectrophotometric readings were taken at 430nm at predetermined time intervals to assess adsorption efficiency of meso-particles and to determine the Langmuir isotherm constants. This study was made possible through Minnesota Space Grant Consortium and Center for Environmental, Earth, and Space Studies funding.