Potato Enzyme Lab Report

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Discussion:
Enzymes (catalase) are found in every living organism, helping to speed up chemical reactions. Enzymes function is to break down molecules into smaller substances. In our experiment we are seeing if the enzyme is able to break down the molecules. We are using hydrogen peroxide as the substrate, this is a substrate of hydrogen and oxygen atoms. as the hydrogen comes into contact with the enzyme (potato disks) the enzyme then breaks down the hydrogen peroxide substance into 2 smaller molecules. The enzymes are affected differently by various temperatures. When the temperature of the enzyme increases this starts to decreases the rate of reaction. This is aa result of the kinetic energy increasing. The heat of the enzyme at high temperatures causes the enzyme to denature, changing its shape, so the substrate is no longer able to fit correctly into the active site, breaking the bond between the two of them, therefore rapidly decreasing the rate of reaction. In my results it shows accurate results for my high temperatures take. (65 and 95 degrees). When test 65 degrees, 0 degrees and 95 degrees in the experiment we used a different potato which may have slightly changed the results. We used …show more content…

For a faster reaction rate (more oxygen bubbles in the experiment) and faster collisions between the substrate and active site the kinetic energy needs to increase. Like higher temperatures denaturing the enzyme and decreasing the reaction rate, low temperatures have this affect of the potato enzyme. only 2 out of 3 of the low temperature (0 degrees) were accurate, this is because we didn't leave our potatoes in the ice for long enough in our first experiment which affected our results, so the results of that round had a higher reaction rate because the enzymes were warming up to an optimal temperature as the experiment went

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