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Enzyme Catalase Experiment

Decent Essays

Introduction:
Within a cell, enzymes are used as a catalyst to increase the rate of chemical reaction. They do not consume themselves, rather they help in increasing the rate of reaction. Within the body, enzymes vary depending on their specific functions. For instance, hydrogen peroxide is a toxic chemical, but it breaks down into harmless oxygen and water. This reaction can be sped up using the enzyme catalyst produced by yeast. Hydrogen peroxide is produced as a byproduct in cellular reaction, because it is poisonous and must be broken down, therefore this reaction is important. The speeding up of the reaction is shown below:
2H2O (aq) catalyses 2H2O (l) + O2 (g)
This experiment is designed to analyze how the enzyme catalase activity is affected by the pH levels. The experiment has also been designed to outline all of the directions and the ways by which the observation can be made clearly and accurately. Yeast, will be used as the enzyme and hydrogen peroxide will be used as a substrate. This experiment will be used to determine the effects of the concentration of the hydrogen peroxide versus the rate of reaction of the enzyme catalase.
Hypothesis:
The presence of catalyst will cause hydrogen peroxide to break down into water and oxygen. The increase in the pH of the substrate will cause the increase in the rate of reaction. It will optimize at pH 7 and will diminish/moderate after pH 9.
The important questions that will help clarify the

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