Experiment On The Effect Of Photosynthesis And The Process Of Photosynthesis

INTRODUCTION:

Photosynthesis is a process that occurs in plants and cyanobacteria where light is used for conversion from light energy to chemical energy and the fixation of carbon dioxide and water produces carbohydrates necessary to the plants. Carbon dioxide is reduced during the process and water is oxidized giving oxygen as a by-product. (Voet et al. 2011, 901).The general equation for photosynthesis is: Light energy 6H2O + 6CO2 C6H12O6 + 6O2 In higher plants and algae, photosynthesis occur in the chloroplast of the cells. (Voet et al. 2011, 901) The chloroplast contain pigments called chlorophyll which captures light needed from the sun. Chloroplasts contain inner and outer membranes that differ in permeability, the outer membrane is smooth and highly permeable to ions and molecules however the inner membrane is impermeable to most of

Therefore, movement needed to be quicker when reading the absorbance between the time intervals.

Precautions taken included keeping the Tris-NaCl and chlorophyll solution on ice to maintain a chilled temperature. The test tube containing chlorophyll solution as well as beaker containing DCPIP were wrapped in foil as they are both light sensitive and interference by light needed to be minimized.

A limitation to this lab was that the stock solution of chlorophyll was very reactive to light and readings had to be taken as quickly as possible but the distance from the light source to the spectrophotometer to read absorbance could have allowed changes in the rate of reaction to occur on the way. The distance created a gap between the time interval to the time where the absorbance was measured and is a major limitation to this