Hi!
I am working on an examination lab, where I investigate how different salts and acids affect the coagulation of egg-white. Listed are the chemicals being used:
AgNO3
CuSO4*5H2O
NaCl
Mg(NO3)2
HCl
(The discussion is relevant for the salts only, since that's how far I've gotten, but if you have input on the acid as well, feel free to disclose 🙂)
What I've done is prepare stock solutions for 1,0 M of each salt and then dilute them in a solution of 0,025 dm3 with the concentrations being:
0,1 M 0,16 M 0,22 M 0,28 M 0,34 M
It's lead to some pretty cool results, where the copper and silver solutions have coagulated the egg-white, but the sodium and magnesium had no visual effect.
What I'm wondering is:
Why did sodium and magnsium have no effect?
Will the entire egg-white coagulate, or is there part of it that doesn't contain protein that will coagulate?
Why did copper and silver have an effect?
Could the method of mixing the two substances affect the coagulation? (Currently just pouring the solution into the egg-white and stirring with a glass-rod).
Thanks in advance! :)
