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About Philip Carlson Ph.D. (Cand.)
Expertise
Prefer questions regarding general chemistry, analytical chemistry, and physical chemistry. Have less knowledge about organic chemistry but can help with most undergraduate organic chemistry questions not related to reactions and their mechanisms.
Experience
Highly experienced in physical chemistry both theoretical and experimental. Current research focus is fluorescence spectroscopy and electronic structure theory (e.g. quantum mechanics). Past research focus was in analytical chemistry in the area of photocatalysis.
Organizations
American Chemical Society;
Society of Christian Philosophers;
Evangelical Philosophical Society
Publications
Lori A. Pretzer, Philp J. Carlson, and Joel E. Boyd. "The effect of Pt oxidation state and concentration on the photocatalytic removal of aqueous ammonia with Pt-modified titania." J. Photochem. Photobiol. A: Chemistry. 200 (2008) 246-253. ;
Philip J. Carlson, Lori A. Pretzer, and Joel E. Boyd. "Solvent Deposition of titanium dioxide on acrylic for photocatalytic application." Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 46 (2007) 7970-7976.
Education/Credentials
A.S. in Chemistry from Garden City Community College, Garden City, KS;
B.S. in Mathematics from Wayland Baptist University, Plainview, TX;
B.S. in Chemistry from Wayland Baptist University, Plainview, TX;
Ph.D. (Cand.) in Physical Chemistry at Iowa State University, Ames, IA;
B.A. in Evangelism and Missions;
M.A. in Theological studies (In progress) from Louisiana Baptist University
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You are here: Experts > Science > Chemistry > Chemistry (including Biochemistry) > Organic Chemistry...well, sort of. PLEASE HELP!!!
Expert: Philip Carlson Ph.D. (Cand.) - 11/3/2009
Question
Hi!
I need help with my science project! I have my ideas, and most of my procedure, but I am having a bit of trouble working out a kink. See, my project is on organic cleaning substances, and my plan as of yet is smearing ketchup in a stain (equal amounts mind you) onto a pieces of cotton, and trying different organic substances, say, lemon juice, to attempt to remove the stain. My only question is how do I record the results of my samples once I am done in a way that I can graph, display, is consistent, and not based on opinion?
Answer
This will be very difficult. Generally when A stain is "removed" all that happens is some bonds are broken in the stain. This allow the absorbance of the stain to shift into a non-visible region. So you would not expect the mass to change through this process. Weighing will not help. You best option I think would be to use some sort of spectroscopy, perhaps UV-Vis spectroscopy that will help to quantify the absorbance of the stain and you can watch as it shifts. The problem is that you cannot do UV-vis spectroscopy on a sample like you have. Generally the light must pass through your sample. That is what makes this type of experiment difficult. Perhaps you could do the test like you describe and take pictures and then make a water/ketchup mixture to do uv-vis on then add your lemon juice to the mixture and see if the absorbance of the ketchup is lessened. However, that would be difficult to do quantitatively. You would have to know how much (mass or volume) of ketchup and the same of lemon juice (and other "stain removers"). That's just a few ideas.
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