Stain Remover Experiment

Overview

Objectives/Goals The objective of my project is to determine which stain remover works best on white cloth. Methods/Materials The stain removers I chose were Soilove, Oxiclean, and Spray #n Wash. The stain I used was Aqueous Annatto Extract. I placed one drop of the stain on the center of the white cloth (same size cloth). I waited an hour before applying the stain remover. I applied # ml of stain remover on the stain. I waited ½ hour before processing the cloth through the washer and dryer. I took pictures of each stage: #Before# (plain white cloth); #With Stain# (stain on the cloth); #After# (after the stain remover was applied and the cloth was washed and dried). I tested all three stain removers four times. Results I used Adobe Photoshop # PS to see which stain remover removed the most amount of stain. I used the #Mean# to measure how much stain each stain remover removed. The #Mean# is based on the electromagnetic spectrum 0-255 (0 is really dark and 255 is white). Example of #Mean#: 174.99 (Before-#Mean#). The stain remover that removed the most amount of stain looking at the color spectrum: #Colors# was Spray #n Wash with an average of 61.14%. Oxiclean came in second place with an average of 49.89%. Soilove came in last place with the average of 35.16%. I also separated the Color Spectrum into three distinctive colors: Red, Green, and Blue to measure amount for each color. The equation I used to determine how much stain was removed was: Percent Change. The equation is #After-mean# minus #With Stain-mean# over #Before Stain-mean# minus #With Stain-mean# then multiply by 100. Conclusions/Discussion I found Spray #n Wash removed the most amount of stain. Spray #n Wash worked best, because it had enzymes when no other stain remover had. When the stain remover is going through the steps to remove a stain the two other stain removers didn#t have enzymes to eat the stain. Enzymes speed up the process of oxidizing agents. Since Soilove and Oxiclean didn#t have enzymes it would take longer to eat the stain. Adobe Photoshop # CS generates graphs based on the electromagnetic spectrum. The electromagnetic spectrum goes from 0-255. 0 being really dark, and 255 being pure white. This means the stain was removed partially and you can see the difference in the graph. I found Spray #n Wash removed the most amount of stain.

Awards (1)

• Category Award

Competition history

• CSEF 2005 Materials Science (Junior Division Only) · Entry J1136

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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