Question

A student is studying the amount of fine particles of plastic in ocean water. The student must determine the mass of plastic in a sample of ocean water. What could the student do to isolate the

plastic?
a. Place the ocean water in tap water and c. Allow the supersaturated solution to be
use chromatography by placing a piece heated using crystallization to separate
of filter paper to pull the water from the the particles.
plastic by its density.
b. Separate the two by boiling points using d. Use a filter to separate the pieces of
distillation
plastic from water using filtration
techniques."

Answer 1

The student should use filtration techniques to separate and measure the mass of plastic in a sample of ocean water. Filtration can effectively trap solid particles while allowing the liquid to pass through, making it an ideal method for this purpose.

Step-by-step explanation:

To isolate the mass of plastic in a sample of ocean water, the student should use filtration techniques. This is because the filtration process is capable of separating a heterogeneous mixture of liquid and solid, such as plastic particles in water. The water will pass through the filter, leaving behind the plastic particles on the filter paper. Distillation and chromatography are not the best methods in this case since they are more suitable for separating mixtures based on differences in boiling points or adsorption characteristics, respectively, rather than solid-liquid separations.

Filtration can be performed by passing the ocean water through a fine filter that can trap the fine plastic particles, allowing the water to pass through as filtrate. After filtration, the plastic particles can be collected from the filter and their mass determined using a balance. This method is both simple and effective for isolating and quantifying solid particles within a liquid.