the equation for this reaction is:
hydrogen peroxide oxygen + water
2H2O2 O2 + 2H2O
An enzyme is the name of a protein that speeds up reactions. They are also known as catalysts. The enzyme I’m using, catalase, is found in the cells of all living things. Catalase helps speed up the breakdown on hydrogen peroxide into water.
There are three main types of enzyme. They are oxidising, reducing and hydrolytic. Catalase is a hydrolytic enzyme, meaning that it breaks down a substance into simpler compounds, which in this case is hydrogen peroxide into oxygen and water.
Variables
There are a few different variables that could affect the rate of an enzyme reaction. They are:
Amount of liver used
Temperature of the reaction
Concentration of Hydrogen Peroxide
Surface area of the liver
I have chosen to change the amount of liver used as my variable. This is because it is quite straight forward. I will use four pieces of liver, and weigh them so their weigh increases by 0.5 each time. To receive a more accurate result, I will repeat each weight twice to gain an average.
Apparatus
For this experiment I will need the following pieces of apparatus:
Hydrogen Peroxide (0.1M)
Liver (4 different weights 0.5g, 1g, 1.5g, 2g)
Water basin
Stop Clock
2 small measuring cylinders
Conical Flask
Side arm
The apparatus will be set up as illustrated:
