An investigation into the effect of changing concentration of a substrate on an enzyme controlled reaction.

The first 200 words of this essay...

Sam Daniels

Biology Coursework

An investigation into the effect of changing concentration of a substrate on an enzyme controlled reaction

Aim

My aim is to plan, investigate, analyse and evaluate the effect of varying the concentration of hydrogen peroxide in the reaction with potato catalase by measuring the Volume of oxygen produced.

Introduction

Catalase releases oxygen from hydrogen peroxide (H202) and is used in the making of foam rubber from latex. Many kinds of enzymes are found in each cell but because they are used over and over there may be only a small amount of each enzyme present. Catalase is found in both plant and animal tissues. In animal cells, catalase is found in liver cells, as the liver is the organ responsible from removing toxic wastes from the body. Such wastes include alcohol and hydrogen peroxide. Catalase accelerates the breakdown of hydrogen peroxide (H202) into water (H2O) and oxygen (O2). The chemical equation for this reaction is:

2H2O2 Catalase 2H2O + O2.

Enzymes are biological catalysts; they speed up chemical reactions, which would otherwise be very slow and they are always proteins. Several factors affect the action