Catalase Activity Experiment

Aim:
To study the effect of substrate concentration on the activity of the enzyme catalase, which is found in living tissues and cells. In this experiment we will obtain catalase from yeast cells. The substrate will be hydrogen peroxide (H202), which vary concentrations from 1-10%. We will measure the rate of reaction by the volume of oxygen (02) released into the water.
Catalase will do this reaction:

2H2O2 2 H2O2 + O2
Substrate Products

Hypothesis:
The rate of reaction is increased by the increase of concentration of Hydrogen Peroxide (H202). The rate of reaction will increase up to a point where the rate of reaction reaches max, at a certain hydrogen peroxide (H202) concentration. Once all the catalase enzymes have a substrate bound to their active sites, and the hydrogen peroxide concentration is increased it will not have an effect on the rate of reaction. Unless more of the catalase enzymes are added to the solution, I believe my hypothesis to be correct, if the pH, temperature and the enzyme concentration stay constant.

Variables:

Independent Concentration of hydrogen peroxide from 1% to 10% The concentrations were made by adding different amounts of water, into the syringe containing hydrogen peroxide. The amount of water added depended on how much we want the hydrogen peroxide to be concentrated.

Dependent Rate of reaction of hydrogen peroxide decomposition- determined by volume of O2 released by each concentration. The volume of oxygen released is found out by the difference of the initial reading in the burette filled with water, and the final reading. This would be divided by the 30 seconds, which...

... middle of paper ...

...1 19.3 10.2
5 3.4 13.7 10.3
5 0 6 6
6 2.5 16 13.5
6 0 8 8
6 14.9 23.2 8.3
7 17.4 27.7 10.3
7 0 9.5 9.5
7 25.7 38.4 12.7
8 27.3 41.1 13.8
8 0 13 13
8 3.3 21 17.7
9 3.7 23.2 19.5
9 0 16 16
9 22.4 38.4 16
10 3.1 22 18.9
10 18.8 32.7 13.9
10 0 19.5 19.5
Data processing:

Conclusion:
We did this experiment to figure out the rates of reaction in different concentrations of hydrogen peroxide. If the pH, temperature and enzyme concentration is constant the results for each group should be the same. The average rate (mL/s) on the data table is represented on the graph above. The graph shows us the rates of reaction of the different concentrations. My hypothesis proved to be correct. If the concentration percentage is increased the average rate of reactions increases.