The purpose of the diaper lab was to see if the concentration of solutes in a solution has an effect on the amount of liquid absorbed by a diaper. The experiment tested how well the diaper would retain liquids with a different solute concentration. The hypothesis driving the experiment was if a hypertonic solution is added to a diaper, then the diaper will be less absorbent because the water will be drawn out of the sodium polyacrylate (powder) in the diaper due to osmosis. Sodium polyacrylate is in most diapers and is toxic, yet incredibly absorbent polymer. Osmosis is the diffusion of water across a cell membrane. During osmosis water moves down the concentration gradient. This means that the water moves from an area where it is more concentrated
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Each bar in the graph represents a different solution of urine. The control sample is 4.5g of salt per liter of liquid. This makes it an isotonic solution. This solution is most like what the urine in an infant should be. The average amount of liquid that a diaper could hold for the isotonic or control solution was 246.1 mL. The solute medium solution was a hypotonic solution. This solution had 1g of salt per liter of liquid. This solution represents an infant that is not getting enough nutrients. The diaper was most absorbent with this solution. This is because the sodium polyacrylate needed to take in water, and could have potentially lysed because of the solute to solvent ratio in this solution. The water in this solution went directly into the sodium polyacrylate and continued to fill it with the water within the urine. The average amount of fake urine that the diaper could contain was 620mL. The final solution was the solute high solution. This solution was hypertonic. This means that it had 10g of salt per liter of liquid. The sodium polyacrylate would initially absorb the water, but then the water would be drawn out of the sodium polyacrylate by the salt in the fake urine. This solution represents an infant that is getting too many nutrients. The average amount of this solution the diaper head was 166.4 mL. When looking at diaper absorbency, urine affects the osmosis within the diaper powder because it is not 100% water. This means that different amounts of solutes in the solution may affect how absorbent the diaper is. The amount of solute in the urine is determined by many factors, including how well the child is fed. This shows that the more solute a solution has in it, the less absorbent a diaper is due to osmosis on sodium
Each bar in the graph represents a different solution of urine. The control sample is 4.5g of salt per liter of liquid. This makes it an isotonic solution. This solution is most like what the urine in an infant should be. The average amount of liquid that a diaper could hold for the isotonic or control solution was 246.1 mL. The solute medium solution was a hypotonic solution. This solution had 1g of salt per liter of liquid. This solution represents an infant that is not getting enough nutrients. The diaper was most absorbent with this solution. This is because the sodium polyacrylate needed to take in water, and could have potentially lysed because of the solute to solvent ratio in this solution. The water in this solution went directly into the sodium polyacrylate and continued to fill it with the water within the urine. The average amount of fake urine that the diaper could contain was 620mL. The final solution was the solute high solution. This solution was hypertonic. This means that it had 10g of salt per liter of liquid. The sodium polyacrylate would initially absorb the water, but then the water would be drawn out of the sodium polyacrylate by the salt in the fake urine. This solution represents an infant that is getting too many nutrients. The average amount of this solution the diaper head was 166.4 mL. When looking at diaper absorbency, urine affects the osmosis within the diaper powder because it is not 100% water. This means that different amounts of solutes in the solution may affect how absorbent the diaper is. The amount of solute in the urine is determined by many factors, including how well the child is fed. This shows that the more solute a solution has in it, the less absorbent a diaper is due to osmosis on sodium