The effect of pH on the speed of enzyme interaction with substrate chemicals Hypothesis: About pH: If the pH level is less than 5, then the speed of the enzyme reaction will be slower. About temperature: If the temperature stays the same, then the speed of the enzyme reaction will not be completely affected. Background information: The function of enzymes is to speed up the biochemical reaction by lowering the activation energy, they do this by colliding with the substrate. All enzymes are under the class of protein biomolecule. Amino acids are the basic units that are combined to make up an enzyme. The biomolecule that stores information is a Nucleic Acid. The specific 3-D region within an enzyme is called the active site. The chemical …show more content…
1 “substrate” and another “ enzyme.” Instead of using the distilled water, this time you are going to use different pH buffer in the enzyme test tube. In the substrate tube, add 7 mL of distilled water, 0.3 mL of hydrogen peroxide, and 0.2 mL of guaiacol for a total volume of 7.5 mL. For the enzyme tube, instead of distilled water add the pH solution (3) and 1.5 mL of peroxidase which equals a total volume of 7.5 mL. Use the dH2O syringe for our pH solution. To clean the syringe, flush it by drawing 6 mL of distilled water. Step 2: Mix both test tubes , shake gently and time the reaction. Step 3: The same step as procedure 1, and step 3 which is to record the observed color step 4: use the palette/color chart to help you identify the observations you make. Safety precautions: Pull your hair back Safety eye goggles Closed toe …show more content…
The three things that can cause the enzyme to denature is a large change in pH level, High Temperature, and substrate concentration. According to our knowledge, we know that a large change in pH will cause instability in the protein structure thus resulting in denaturation of the enzyme. From the data, we can see that pH 3 (total:6.3) and 10 (total:6.2) were the slowest because pH 3 is probably the highest acid and pH 10 is the highest base. The highest acid or base pH represents a large change which would cause the enzyme to denature. The fastest pH was 6 (total:34.5), and it seems that there wasn’t a large change which resulted in a stable structure. The temperature in our experiment was not very high which didn’t result in denaturation of peroxidase. The temperature seemed to be a constant that didn’t affect the experiment. If the temperature was higher in pH 3 and low in pH 10, then it would cause pH 3 to denature even more which would make the pH 3 total about 4.0. Substrate concentration basically means the amount used for the substrate. The substrate in our experiment was 0.1% hydrogen peroxide. The 0.1% is the concentration amount. Just like temperature and pH, substrate concentration can speed the reaction only up to a certain limit. When we mixed pH 3 enzyme tube with substrate tube, we used 0.3 mL of hydrogen peroxide, but if we were to increase the amount, then the experiment would have been faster. Our