Investigation into the effect of temperature on the activity of the enzyme urease.

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Investigation into the effect of temperature on the activity of the enzyme urease

Urea + Urease ? Ammonium Carbonate

The aim of this experiment is to investigate the affect of different temperatures on the rate of activity of the enzyme urease.

I will achieve this by heating 5 solutions to different temperatures. They will be heated in a water bath and left for approximately 40 minutes. After this time, acid will be added to neutralize the solution and the activity of the enzyme will be measured via the volume of acid added.

My predication is that as I increase the temperature of the solutions, the speed in which the reaction takes place, and amount of products produced will increase. However, I predict that at a high temperature the enzymes will denature and activity will cease. This is because of the following reasons. Firstly, at a high temperature, molecules are given more kinetic energy. In a reaction, this results in an increase in collisions and an increase in the amount that are actually effective. The same applies with enzymes. At a higher temperature the substrate and enzyme molecules have more kinetic energy and therefore have more