Investigating Enzymes.

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Prieur du Plessis

11A

Chemistry_______________________________________________________________                                                                                                                             

Investigating Enzymes Lab Report

Research Question:

Determine the Vmax and Km of an reaction with an enzyme.

Does Acid affect the enzyme and the rate of reaction?

Variables:

The first table will suggest the variables identified for the first experiment.

The next table will show variables for the second part of the experiment

Hypothesis:

For the first experiment I predicted that the amount of Guiacol has a definite effect on the rate of reaction. I predicted that the more the Guiacol in the reaction the faster will the reaction rate be.

For the experiment with the HCL if predict that the enzyme will be affected by the acid, I predict that the more HCL the faster the rate of reaction.

Background Information:

In this experiment we are dealing with the following reaction.

4 C2H8O2  +  4 H2O2         →         8H2O + C8H24O8

In this experiment we are dealing with the enzyme perioxidase. This enzyme is a protein which act as an catalyst for the reactions between a number of other reactions between substances. The most important reaction to know about which involves an enzyme is the conversion of food in the body to energy known as the metabolism. The more the enzyme the faster the metabolism.  Each enzyme atom in a reaction consists of an active site, thus active site is shaped so that the substrata can come and fit into the enzyme. A good image of this would be to think of a puzzle. The reaction takes place in this active site and the products are released when the reaction is completed. When the substrate does not fit perfectly into the active site then the reaction will not take place. This is almost a safety precaution so that the enzyme does not react with anything, which it is not supposed to.

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The picture on the next page will carefully show how the active site works. I got this picture from Microsoft Encarta 2001 World Encyclopedia

This experiment is also about determining the Vmax and Km for the reaction. Vmax is also known as the maximum velocity of the reaction. This can be determined by plotting a graph for rate of reaction with the enzyme. To determine the Vmax all I have to do is look at the slope of the line. Where the slope of the line is the steepest there I will know is the Vmax. There ...

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