Samm UR, Let Me Zinc About It.

WHAT a week! Between every assignment known to man being thrown at me from every which way, I have been thinking about my IRP and the scientific question I will pose. Originally, I had wanted to test out the waters of several of Florida's springs to see if the sunscreen that was washing off of the spring-goers was creating hydrogen peroxide (which can be toxic to phytoplankton). But I came to realize that I started my questions too high up the ladder. How could I understand the dynamics of these chemical filters and how they react with ultraviolet light if I barely understand each filter on it's own? My scientific question need to be based on something simple that I could easily test to help me further understand how these elements react in marine ecosystems and how they can affect marine life. Luckily, we have a way to test for zinc in water, so I'm now 100% sure I want to test that. So my scientific question from all of this?

When under ultraviolet light, how will zinc oxide react in seawater?

The chemical equation for titanium dioxide creating hydrogen peroxide under UV light

For this project, I will need two sunscreens whose main UV filter is ONLY zinc oxide. With two different tanks, I am going to pour a certain amount of sunscreen into the water and let the tank sit in the UV box (to recreate the UV radiation from sunlight). Every other day (at the least), I will take a small water sample and test for the amount of zinc. Once the experiment is over, I will use the data collected and create a representative graph.

Needless to say, I'm excited for this project (which says a lot, seeing as I've never been all too excited about science before, haha!). I think this subject could be good for future research, so I hope I do science proud, and learn some things I would have never thought I'd ever do!

Fun Fact of the Day:

So, in doing some more research on zinc oxide and hydrogen peroxide, I became very confused. The original article I read that piqued my interest in the subject talked about the creation of hydrogen peroxide in the water, and somehow I clicked on a link that brought me to a different study, titled "Sunscreen Products as Emerging Pollutants to Coastal Waters", which had absolutely nothing to do with hydrogen peroxide. You can imagine my confusion as to why so many articles would comment on something that didn't exist. Well, after many, many, many google searches later, I discovered another study done by the same people titled "Sunscreens as a Source of Hydrogen Peroxide in Coastal Waters". Unfortunately, I cannot gain access to the entire study (unless I want to pay an arm and a leg!), but I was able to find a nifty picture with the chemical equation for titanium dioxide and UV light reacting together to make hydrogen peroxide. Unfortunately, going back to the original article, I am unsure of how I got to the first study. Suffice it to say, I am slightly embarrassed!