Experiment with Fingernails..help!

[bio.chem.phy]

hi all,

 

im designing an experiment that takes fingernails (cut off from person) and have one set covered in fingernail polish while another set has no polish. Im planning to soak them in different pH solutions and compare to see if polish protects the nails. The only problem is that i dont know how to measure the change (dependent variable) of the fingernails after taken out from the pH. Does anyone know how to measure the change so that the nails can be compared? thx

[iNow]

Not sure how to measure the change, but will all surfaces of the nail be coated in polish, or just the top (for example)?

[bio.chem.phy]

yups, the whole piece of fingernail will be coated in polish

 

i just dunno how to compare the results

[gonelli]

perhaps measuring the mass of the nails before and after being put into the different pH solution? or maybe even testing the flexibility of the nail before and after?

[CharonY]

Hmm do you have access to any scanning probe microscopes (e.g. AFM)? Or microscopes at all?

[bio.chem.phy]

ya i have access to light microscopes, but would drawings be reliable enough?

i thought about measuring its mass, but that would be assuming the nails will break off in some pH solution. flexibility is neat, but testing it needs to be controlled for all nails

 

i know nails are made of the protein keratin...maybe pH will denaturate it..

[Mr Skeptic]

Bases will disintegrate most proteins. So yes, pH can destroy proteins.