Potato and Hydrogen peroxide Investigation

Authors Avatar

Background information:

I’m going to drop a piece of potato into Hydrogen peroxide and examine the rate of reaction while changing the surface area of the same size potato.

Hydrogen peroxide is made during some reactions in cells. It is an oxidizing agent so it will damage the cell that is making it. It slowly decomposes into water and oxygen.

2H  O                        2H  O + O

Hydrogen peroxide                Water + Oxygen

An enzyme called catalase is in living cells, which helps speed up this reaction. If you put bits of potato or liver into hydrogen peroxide the mixture fizzes as oxygen is released.

This happens inside the hydrogen peroxide where the catalase enzymes meet or collide together. The potato cells have to be in the hydrogen peroxide for the enzymes to work on the reaction.

All this is relevant to the Collision Theory:

The speed of reaction can increase if the molecules reacting collide or move faster. Here are some ways that the reaction time can fasten.

Temperature:

 Increasing the temperature causes the speeding up of particles (in liquids and gases). The faster they move the more collision that will happen and more energy for the reaction to take place.

Concentration:

Increasing the concentration means there are more particles per volume set, which means there are more chances of collision.

Join now!

Surface area

If the chemical is a solid piece, some particles are hidden inside. Breaking it up means that more particles are exposed to collide and react.

Catalysts (including enzymes)

These speeds up reactions by lowering the energy needed for a collision to result a reaction. But they still need to meet up with the particles for the reaction to happen, so the above things (temperature, concentration and surface area) can still have an effect.

Aim:

I’m going to investigate the effect of the change in surface area of potato chip in a reaction ...

This is a preview of the whole essay