This experiment tested how the pH level affects the reaction time of the catalase enzyme from potato juice. Five solutions with pH levels of 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 were made and the potato juice was added. Filter paper was placed in each solution and hydrogen peroxide, and the time taken for bubbles to form was recorded. The results showed little variation in reaction times across the pH levels, between 8-11 seconds. This disproved the hypothesis that extreme pH levels would cause the enzyme to denature or stop working. The conclusion was that pH had little effect on the catalase enzyme's reaction.
This experiment tested how the pH level affects the reaction time of the catalase enzyme from potato juice. Five solutions with pH levels of 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 were made and the potato juice was added. Filter paper was placed in each solution and hydrogen peroxide, and the time taken for bubbles to form was recorded. The results showed little variation in reaction times across the pH levels, between 8-11 seconds. This disproved the hypothesis that extreme pH levels would cause the enzyme to denature or stop working. The conclusion was that pH had little effect on the catalase enzyme's reaction.
This experiment tested how the pH level affects the reaction time of the catalase enzyme from potato juice. Five solutions with pH levels of 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 were made and the potato juice was added. Filter paper was placed in each solution and hydrogen peroxide, and the time taken for bubbles to form was recorded. The results showed little variation in reaction times across the pH levels, between 8-11 seconds. This disproved the hypothesis that extreme pH levels would cause the enzyme to denature or stop working. The conclusion was that pH had little effect on the catalase enzyme's reaction.
This experiment tested how the pH level affects the reaction time of the catalase enzyme from potato juice. Five solutions with pH levels of 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 were made and the potato juice was added. Filter paper was placed in each solution and hydrogen peroxide, and the time taken for bubbles to form was recorded. The results showed little variation in reaction times across the pH levels, between 8-11 seconds. This disproved the hypothesis that extreme pH levels would cause the enzyme to denature or stop working. The conclusion was that pH had little effect on the catalase enzyme's reaction.
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The Potato Lab
November 6, 2015 SNHU Biology
Abstract: In this experiment, we wanted to see if the change in pH would increase or decrease an enzymes reaction time. We used sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid to change the pH of water, and the catalase in 100% potato juice as our enzyme. We had pH levels of three, five, seven, nine, and eleven. Other materials that we used were pH strips, filter discs, distilled water, hydrogen peroxide, paper towel, tweezers, 8 beakers, 3 pipettes, a 25 ml graduated cylinder, and a timer. We hypothesized that the enzymes would denature in extreme pH levels and would show no reaction. We thought that the extreme pH levels would be too acidic for the enzyme. Our hypothesis proved to be false. The pH levels had very little effect on the enzymes reaction.
Introduction: Enzymes are biological molecules (proteins) that act as catalysts (accelerators) and help complex reactions occur everywhere in life. The molecules at the beginning of the process are called substrates and the enzyme converts these into different molecules, called products. Almost all metabolic processes in the cell need enzymes in order to occur at rates fast enough to sustain life. The set of enzymes made in a cell determines which metabolic pathways occur in that cell. Most enzymes are proteins, although a few are catalytic RNA molecules. Enzymes' specificity comes from their unique three-dimensional structures. Like all catalysts, enzymes increase the rate of a reaction by lowering its activation energy. Some enzymes can make their conversion of substrate to product occur many millions of times faster. An enzyme's activity decreases markedly outside its optimal (ideal) temperature and pH level. pH is a numeric scale used to specify the acidity or alkalinity of an aqueous solution. Solutions with a pH less than 7 are acidic and solutions with a pH greater than 7 are alkaline or basic. Pure water is neutral, being neither an acid nor a base. pH measurements are important in medicine, biology, chemistry, agriculture, forestry, food science, environmental science, oceanography, civil engineering, chemical engineering, nutrition, water treatment & water purification, and many other applications.We wanted to test how an enzyme would function and react in solutions of different pH levels. We did this by mixing 100% potato juice (the source of the catalase enzyme we used) with five solutions that had pH levels of 3,5,7, 9, and 11 respectively. We had hypothesized that because the optimal pH level of catalase is 7, the reaction times would increase as the pH level became more acidic/basic. We figured that the extreme pH levels would cause the catalase enzyme to either stop working or denature.
Problem: Will the change in pH levels increase or decrease the enzymes reaction time? Hypothesis: Extreme pH levels, both basic and acidic, will cause the catalase enzyme to stop working or denature.
Materials:
pH strips
Hydrochloric acid
Sodium hydroxide
100% Potato juice
8 beakers
Filter discs
Distilled water
Hydrogen peroxide
3 pipettes
Paper towel
Tweezers
Timer
Procedure:
1. Number each of the five beakers 3,5,7,9, and 11 respectively.
2. Using a pipet, fill each beaker with 16 ml of distilled water. 3. Fill a 6th beaker with hydrochloric acid. Fill a 7th beaker with sodium hydroxide. 4. Using a different pipet, add two drops of hydrochloric acid to the #3 beaker. Use a pH strip to make sure the water has a pH of 3. If the pH is too low, add a small amount of sodium hydroxide until it is corrected. Check that each solution has reached the right pH level by utilizing a pH strip in steps 4-8. 5. Add one drop of hydrochloric acid to the #5 beaker. If the pH is too low, add a small amount of sodium hydroxide. 6. Do not add anything to the beaker labeled as #7. The distilled water should be at the correct pH level already. 7. Add one drop of sodium hydroxide to the #9 beaker. Use a pH strip to make sure the water has a pH of 9. If the pH is too high, add a small amount of hydrochloric acid until you get the right pH. 8. Add three drops of sodium hydroxide to the #11 beaker. Use a pH strip to make sure the water has pH of 11. If the pH is too high, add a small amount of hydrochloric acid until you get the right pH. 9. Using a graduated cylinder, add 16 ml of 100% potato juice to each of the 5 beakers. 10. Fill the 8th beaker with 30 ml of hydrogen peroxide. 11. Cut 4 filter discs into quarters. 12. Dip a piece of filter paper into beaker #3 for 5 seconds. Dry each side of the filter disc on a piece of paper towel for 1 second each, then put the filter paper into the hydrogen
peroxide and record the amount of time it takes for the filter disc to rise to the top. Write reaction time in data table. Repeat this step twice (for a total of three times). 13. Repeat step 12 for the other four beakers. Remember to empty and refill the H2O2 beaker after every three trials. Results: Table #1: Test
Time(second)/Trial 1
Time(second)/ Trial 2
Time(second)/ Trail 3
Time(second)/ Trail 4
#1/ Ph 3
11.2
11.7
10.3
11.06
#2/ Ph 5
11.2
11.2
11.3
11.25
#3/ Ph 7
9.5
10.6
11.4
10.5
#4/ Ph 9
9.4
10.4
10.7
10.16
#5/ Ph 11
9.1
8.2
8.9
8.7
Graph #1:
Conclusion: The hypothesis that we made was wrong. The hypothesis was that extreme pH levels of either higher or lower could cause the reaction to not react. As you can see from table one and graph one the reaction time decreased at a constant rate. There was no dramatic drop in the reaction rate like we expected it. There was indeed a reaction. We had a few problems during the experiment but the problems were quickly fixed. When we first did the experiment we put the pH in the hydrogen peroxide. The different pH level was supposed to go in the potato juice. Other than that the experiment went pretty well. If the experiment could have been redone I would have tried it on different concentrations of potato juice. It would be interesting to see how different pH levels would react to different concentration of potato juice.
References: "Create A Graph." Create A Graph. Web. 4 Nov. 2015.
