An Investigation to Determine the Lowest Concentration of Copper Sulphate that Brings Full Denaturation of Egg  Albumen.

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An Investigation to Determine the Lowest Concentration of Copper Sulphate that Brings Full Denaturation of Egg  Albumen

           Centre 15131                                    Candidate 4455

Aim:

     The aim of this experiment was to see at what concentration the egg albumen would be fully denaturated by the copper (II) sulphate at room temperature, so we had to determine the lowest concentration of copper sulphate that gave full denaturation.

Background Information:

           

       The egg albumen is the globular protein in this experiment and the copper (II) sulphate is the solution that denatures the protein. Denaturation happens when the peptide bond in the protein is broken by hydrolysis, which is caused by the copper (II) sulphate. Proteins are made from the same basic component that are amino acids. The reason proteins differ is because of the amino acid and the amino acids differ because of the R group, which they contain.  There are 20 different amino acids that occur in proteins. The R groups are responsible for the 3D shapes of protein molecules and functions. Also the fact that it is a heavy metal e.g. copper it means that it reduces the protein charge and affect the protein structure and this effect causes the precipitation of the protein (Advanced Bio-Student Revision manual).

                                        N          C         C

(Biology 1 OCR in Biological molecules)

First there is the primary structure, which are many protein molecules linked together into a long chain, which is held together with peptide bonds

                                                     

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Secondary protein structures are polypeptides that become twisted or coiled. These are held by hydrogen bonds

Tertiary proteins are where polypeptides are folded into precise shapes. It is held in a permanent shape by bonds such as hydrogen and ionic bonds and this is a 3D shape.

Quaternary proteins consist of different polypeptides bonding together to form extremely intricate shapes. An e.g. is haemoglobin.  

     

Preliminary Experiment

    I started my experiment by using 5ml of egg albumen and 1ml of copper sulphate. The ...

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