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Catalase Lab

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I knew that the catalase was working, because it was evident that it was speeding up the chemical reaction of the hydrogen peroxide. The decomposition reaction of hydrogen peroxide into products water and oxygen occured very quickly as soon as the enzyme for hydrogen peroxide (catalase) was added into the graduated cylinder with the hydrogen peroxide. As a result, an increasing amount of foam was being produced; a mixture of the products water and oxygen. Catalase speeds up chemical reactions by lowering the activation energy required to initiate the chemical reaction. Therefore, after adding catalase to the substrate that needed to be broken down into it’s products, the reaction’s activation energy was lowered, and it did not need as much …show more content…

This is seen in the data in Part B, where the optimal temperature is seen to have occurred between 30ᐤC to 40ᐤC, which is why the foam height decreased going from 40ᐤC to 30ᐤC (144mm to 136mm). At this specific temperature of 37ᐤC, the enzyme catalase is able to function most effectively, which is approximately the temperature of the human body. At 37ᐤC, there will be an increase in the amount of kinetic energy in the molecule, which means there will be an increase in collisions in the molecules, allowing the enzyme to have it’s maximum activity. Generally, one would think that this trend would continue as the temperature continues to increase, but if it increases over 37ᐤC, the rate of reactivity of the enzyme will drop drastically, as the enzyme’s bonds start to break and it denatures. However, according to the class observations, it was noted that the temperature at which the foam height was the greatest was at 0ᐤC, which contrasts to the actual optimal temperature of catalase …show more content…

This is because the inhibitor, copper (II) sulfate interfered with the substrate (hydrogen peroxide) from binding to the enzyme (catalase). Therefore, the enzyme’s activity was reduced, as it was unable to breakdown the hydrogen peroxide as much, and was unable to produce as much foam as a result. After the second minute of combining the catalase with the inhibitor, and the hydrogen peroxide, it was evident that the production of the foam had ceased completely. After increasing from a foam height of 14-15mm, the foam height stayed at 15mm for the remainder of the 5 minutes, because the inhibitor had now interfered fully with the substrate binding to the enzyme, by deeming the enzyme

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