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Enzyme Catalase Lab Report

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Introduction:
A catalyst speeds up a reaction by lowering the activation energy that is used to start it. There are both organic and inorganic catalysts-one being an enzyme. An enzyme is an organic catalyst that speeds up the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed by the reaction. Enzymes are proteins, meaning that they have a unique structure that dictates what their function is. This unique structure also determines what substrate, or specific reactant, the enzyme will catalyze. From there, the substrate and enzyme bind together; which leads to the reactants being created.
The enzyme tested during this experiment was the enzyme catalase. This is an enzyme that is found in both plant and animal cells, and is found in large …show more content…

As shown in figure 1: tube 1, the control group (with a plastic bead as the catalyst), did not have any reaction. Tube 2 (containing the manganese dioxide as a catalyst), however, did have a reaction- its rate was a 1 out of 4. Tubes 3 (with potato as the catalyst) and 4 (with liver as the catalyst) both had bigger reactions, with tube 4 being the highest rating. Tube 3 was rated a 2 out of 4, and tube 4, with the biggest reaction, was rated a 4 out of 4.
As exhibited in figure 2, tube 1 (with room temperature liver as the catalyst) was the biggest reaction with a rate of 4 out of 4. Tube 2 (containing heated liver as the catalyst) did not have any reaction, leading it to have a 0 out of 4 rating. The 3rd tube, containing cooled liver as the catalyst, was the second biggest reaction with a rating of 3 out of 4. The last 2 tubes, 4 (with heated manganese dioxide as the catalyst) and 5 (containing cooled manganese dioxide as the catalyst), had very small reactions and were both rated 1 out of 4. Discussion/Conclusion

From this lab, I have discovered a lot of important information regarding enzymes and enzyme function. For instance, during part 1 of the lab, I found out that manganese dioxide is not as effective at catalyzing reactions than catalase is. This leads me to believe that enzymes as a whole are sometimes more effective than non-organic catalysts. While the manganese dioxide created 2 cm worth of bubbles, the

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