Menacing Microplastics and the Ferrofluid Hero

Overview

The purpose of my project is to discover if mineral oil, olive oil, soybean oil, or just water works best to extract microplastics using ferrofluid extraction. For my hypothesis, I believe that soybean oil works best to extract microplastics using ferrofluid extraction. Materials needed for this project include olive oil, mineral oil, soybean oil, ferrofluid, dropper, notebook and pencil to record data, plastics, scissors to cut the plastics to equal sizes cups, water, microplastics from the cut up pieces, neodymium magnet, paper towels. scale that can measure in ounces, gloves, paper plates, toothpicks, and index cards to label materials during tests. The procedures start with gathering materials. For this experiment, 3 trials were done for each ferrofluid extraction solvent group: control-water, mineral oil, olive oil, and soybean oil. My experiment took place with 15 ml of water, 5 drops of ferrofluid, and for the variables, 2 ml of solvent group (mineral, olive, and soybean oils). Then 30 microplastic pieces were added to each mixture and mixed. After that, I dragged the neodymium magnet across the surface 5 times for 30 seconds dabbing the magnet on a paper plate each time after running the magnet across the surface. I then would clean the magnet after each trial making sure every microplastic piece was collected off the magnet and on a plate. Once all the experiments were done, I used a toothpick to count the pieces of microplastics on the plates collected from each trial and wrote down the number of pieces on the data chart. The results showed that soybean oil extracted the most average pieces of microplastics. The olive oil also extracted many microplastics, but still less than soybean oil. Also, the water control group did not compare to olive oil or soybean oil. Mineral oil worked the least with a great difference to the other oils tested and was close to the water’s average. For my conclusion, my hypothesis was correct that soybean oil would extract the most microplastics in ferrofluid extraction. From my research and the experiment, I learned the process of ferrofluid extraction, acquired knowledge of magnetic forces, what microplastics are, and how microplastics affect our environment in a negative way. Microplastics are polluting our beaches, oceans, and everywhere. Also, microplastics are affecting our aquatic life negatively by creatures ingesting them and continuing through the food chain. We must continue our studies on ways to extract microplastics. Polluting microplastics do not only affect a single area, they affect the entire whole world.

Competition history

• CSEF 2026 Earth & Environmental Sciences (Junior Division) · Entry J-08-07

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