Date of Last Revision

2023-05-03 12:50:58

Major

Chemical Engineering - Cooperative Education

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Date of Expected Graduation

Spring 2019

Abstract

Trihalomethane (THM) detection in water is important due to the potential health effects caused by their presence, including increased cancer risk. A cheap, quick, and portable method of identifying THM concentration at the Environmental Protection Agency limit of 80 parts per billion (ppb) will improve detection and water treatment. Electrospinning was used to make nanofiber membranes using a 2.6 wt% polypropylene solution. These membranes were utilized in the Fujiwara reaction, which creates a color change in the presence of THMs, to detect the THM bromoform in water. The color intensity of the reaction was quantified for 250 and 80 ppb of bromoform. A prototype for portable testing was created. A Moto X4 camera was used for quantifying intensity, and determined to not be precise enough to compare to previous data, which used a higher quality camera. The original procedure resulted in an average intensity of 90.8 and 68.7 for 250 and 80 ppb respectively. The prototype reported a respective average intensity of 93.7 and 73.9 for 250 and 80 ppb. The difference between the original and prototype testing data at both concentrations was determined to be insignificant with t-testing, and should be tested further upon improving the prototype materials.

Research Sponsor

Dr. Chelsea Monty

First Reader

Dr. Edward Evans

Second Reader

Dr. George Chase

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