investigatory project ( CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION )

Chapter I
Introduction

There are so many materials that we can find in the environment. Man has added many more materials to those that are found in nature. People have invented and produced new material to take the place or improve them.
People want to have a long healthy life; therefore, they need a healthful environment. There is a need for more food and a much better preparation of that food.
Technology has allowed people to invent new materials that will be more effective and economical. Scientists and manufacturers of products have discovered that chemicals can be used to produce materials that are useful in the life of every individual.

A. Background of the Study
Pigweed, scientific name Amaranthus Spinosus or uray is a family of flowering plants in the order of Caryophyllates about 50 to 800 species herbs with a few shrubs native to the Philippines. It has a stout, erect, smooth, branch herb, 0.4 to 1 m high, stems with slender auxiliary spines. The presence of spines differentiates it from kulitis (Amaranthus Viridis) or amaranth. The leaves are glabrous, long-petiole, oblong to oblong ovate, or elliptic-lanciolate, 4 to 10 cm long, obtuse, alternate. The flowers are very numerous, stalk less, green or greening-white, axillary clusters and in elongated terminal axillary spikes sepals 5 or 1-3 ovate to linear, often aristae. Petals are scrawls bracts, bristle pointed and as long as the sepals or longer. Seeds are minute, black, and shining.
Lye is a corrosive alkaline substance, specifically, sodium hydroxide (NaOH). Previously, lye was among the many different alkalis leached from hardwood ashes.
In modern day, lye is commercially manufactured using a membrane cell method, which is an improvement from the previous diaphragm cell methods of Castner-Kellner, Gibbs, and Nelson.