Academia & research
What lemon and heat do to aluminum foil
İmge Nil Çıtak measured how citric acid and marination time affect the binding of aluminum ions to potatoes, and her next experiment asks what those ions do to molecules of the nervous system.
"Most parts of the world use lemons, spices and oils to prepare and marinate foods," İmge Nil Çıtak says. Cook that food in aluminum foil and, she says, aluminum leaches into it through heat. Citric acid in the lemons increases the leaching.
In high school she wrote her extended essay in chemistry on the negative effects of using aluminum foil for cooking and its implications for potential neurotoxicity. She marinated potatoes in citric acid at different concentrations and for different lengths of time, then measured the binding chemistry between aluminum ions and the potatoes through complexometric titration.
“For me, it’s important to learn through experiencing and exploring different fields while not sidelining my curiosity in the pursuit of academic success.”
İmge Nil Çıtak
That study quantified how much aluminum was absorbed into the food. It did not include what that aluminum does to molecules related to the nervous system. "That raised the new question of how molecules related to the nervous system might react when in contact with aluminum ions," she says.
Her next experiment will be done on three of those molecules, which she names as Catechol, L-Glutamic Acid and Histamine. The plan is to explore how their binding chemistry differs when each comes into contact with aluminum ions.
She is on a gap year. The research, she says, is motivated by people around the world who season their food with oils, spices and juices and then cook it wrapped in aluminum foil or in aluminum pots and pans. "Understanding the chemistry behind this binding is important in potentially exploring aluminum's effect on the nervous system and its related disorders," she says.