Introduction:
I carried out an experiment to determine how the concentration of an enzyme will cause a change in the initial rate of reaction. I worked with three other people and split different tasks between ourselves. This experiment required a lot of safety measures to be taken.
Safety:
Goggles were needed for the experiment to avoid contact with eyes as we were using hydrogen peroxide which is corrosive, and hot water.
Lab. Coats were a necessity in order to avoid the risk of getting the corrosive and possibly irritating substance on our clothes, which may seep through to the skin and cause an allergic reaction or burning.
Extra safety required when using the “cork borer” as it is a sharp object which may pierce through the skin in the process of cutting a cylinder of the potato.
Hypothesis:
My hypothesis was that as the concentration of the enzyme increases so will the rate of reaction as there is more molecules available allowing more collisions to occur in a shorter period of time. The rate of the reaction will be measure by the amount of oxygen produced when the enzyme reacts with the solution.
Apparatus
- Potato (enzyme)
- Hydrogen peroxide solution
- Buffer solution
- boiling tube
- Bung and Delivery tube
- Measuring cylinder
- Thermometer
- Cork Borer
- scalpel
- white tile
- Water baths
- Stopwatch
- 10cm3 syringe barrel
- Ruler
- Clamp Stand
Method:
Step 1: Join the boiling tube to the 10cm3 syringe barrel via delivery tube.
Step 2: Use the cork borer to produce a potato cylinder from the potato by inserting it in the potato and forcing it through the other end. Then push the potato cylinder out of the cork borer.
Step 3: Cut up 10 disks from the potato cylinder. Each disk should be 0.2 mm thick each. The potato disks will be the enzyme.
Step 4: measure and pour 5cm3 of hydrogen peroxide in to the boiling tube and place it