Every minute there are thousands of chemical reactions occurring in cells that are controlled by enzymes. (Vodopich) Enzymes are biological catalysts that speed up chemical reactions. As catalysts, enzymes lower the amount of energy needed to trigger a reaction. Enzymes are proteins with their own shapes determined by amino acid structures. The active site complexes on these structures determine what specific changes a substrate (reactant molecule in a catalyzed enzyme) will go through becoming a different substance with a different shape. (Weiss 2001) During this experiment the enzyme catalase was used to reduce hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to water and oxygen. After adding aliqouts of reaction mixture we removed small amounts of sample at different time intervals we analyzed the molar concentration of H2O2 and the velocity of molar change per minute. Assaying denatured enzyme samples at different time intervals of 0, 0.5,1,1.5,and 2 minutes to review spectrophotometer readings of the corresponding samples of H2O2. Our absorbency readings at 500 decreased from .921 at 0 minutes to 0.086 at 2.0 minutes. The concentration of H2O2 also decreased according to time, from .28 moles at 0 minutes to 0.026 moles at 2 minutes. B
2. Velocity or rate of Molarity change/per minute was determined by the
Our results show that fixed enzymatic concentration and fixed reaction conditions can increase the rate of enzymatic reaction depending on adequate amounts of substrate. Likewise a depleted substrate will decrease the rate of reaction as time increases. During the beginning stages of reaction, with strong excess substrate concentration the absorbance rate is linear with time. These results support the current literature. (Edvotek 1998, Perry and others 2002)
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