Variations Effect on Catalase
Madison Leonard
11 October 2017
Biological Principles I Laboratory Section 022
Ian Palmer
Abstract:
Catalase is an enzyme that benefits all living organisms by catalyzing the decomposition of
hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen. The detoxification of hydrogen peroxide prevents
fatal carbon dioxide bubbles from forming in the bloodstream. The point of this experiment was
to test the effect of varying substrate concentration and temperature on the rate of enzyme-
catalased reaction. In this experiment, we tested the hypothesis that as substrate concentration
increases so will the reaction rate until all active sites are bound. We also tested the hypothesis
that as temperature increases so will reaction rate until the enzyme is denatured. In the first part
of the experiment we used plain water, the same enzyme sample and different percent substrate
with each trial to record the time required to collect 10 mL of oxygen as a result of the
breakdown of hydrogen peroxide. In the second part of the experiment we used a buffer,
