Investigation into the effect of pH change on catalase reacting with hydrogen peroxide.

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Investigation into the effect of pH change on catalase reacting with hydrogen peroxide.

Aim

To investigate and chart the effect of pH change on catalase activity.

 Hypothesis

I believe that the optimum pH for enzyme activity will be a neutral or close to neutral one.  I predict that it will be in the range of 5-9 on the pH scale.

Background Information

This experiment is very similar to the previous investigation with the only difference being that our variable in this experiment is the pH of the solution that the enzymes are in, rather than the temperature that the enzymes had to react at.

The symbol pH refers to the concentration of hydrogen ions present in a solution.  The greater the number of hydrogen ions present, the lower the pH and the more acidic the solution.  This is measured on the pH scale, which goes from 1-12, with 1 being the most acidic and 12 being the most alkaline.

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Each enzyme works best at a particular pH, called its optimum pH.

Apparatus

The apparatus for this investigation is almost exactly the same as that used for the investigation into the effect of temperature on catalase, but with a few exceptions.  Rather than having two water baths at different temperatures, and a beaker full of icy water, five beakers all containing solutions with different pHs are needed.  Beakers with pH 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 were used.  5 test tubes are also required, one for each pH as there are no repetitions.  Also, the thermometer is ...

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