To investigate the effect of surface area on the rate of reaction using the enzyme Catalase, found in potato, and the substrate Hydrogen Peroxide.

For a product to be formed, the substrate must bind with the enzyme's active site. Enzymes are globular biological catalysts, which speed up a chemical reaction. Enzymes have an active site, where another molecule called a substrate combines.

To catalyze a reaction, an enzyme will bind to one or more reactant molecules. These molecules are the enzyme 's substrates. The part of the enzyme where the substrate binds is called the active site. In enzymes that are proteins, the active site gets its properties from the amino acids it 's built out of. These amino acids may have side chains that are acidic or basic. The set of amino acids

To understand how and why the experiment was performed, one must understand what enzymes and substrates are. Enzymes are defined as proteins that are capable of speeding up a chemical reaction by reducing the amount of activation energy needed to catalyze that reaction (Raven, Johnson and Mason 2014). Enzymes regulate these biochemical processes

Changes in pH also alter an enzyme’s shape. Different enzymes work best at different pH values. The optimum pH for an enzyme depends on where it normally works. For example, intestinal enzymes have an optimum pH of about 7.5 whereas enzymes in the stomach have an optimum pH of about 2.

Enzymes such as Catalase are protein molecules that are found in living cells. They are used to speed up specific reactions in the cells. Each enzyme just performs one particular reaction so they are all very specific. Catalase enzymes found in living cells e.g. in yeast, potato or liver, speed up (in our case) the breaking down of hydrogen peroxide.

“Enzymes are proteins that have catalytic functions” [1], “that speed up or slow down reactions”[2], “indispensable to maintenance and activity of life”[1]. They are each very specific, and will only work when a particular substrate fits in their active site. An active site is “a region on the surface of an enzyme where the substrate binds, and where the reaction occurs”[2].

1. pH. Amino acid side chains contain groups such as - COOH and NH2 that readily gain or lose H+ ions. As the pH is lowered an enzyme will tend to gain H+ ions, and eventually enough side chains will be affected so the enzyme's shape is disrupted. Likewise, as the pH is raised, the enzymes will lose H+ ions and eventually lose its active shape. Many of the enzymes function properly in the neutral pH range and are denatured at either an extremely high or low pH. Some

    In order to generate chemical reactions, enzymes must bind to a substrate. A substrate is a specific reactant that an enzyme acts upon in order to generate product. A substrate binds to the active site on the enzyme, which is a groove or cavity on the surface of the enzyme in which the substrate flawlessly fits. Active sites are typically composed of amino acids from various portions of the polypeptide chains that are drawn together in the tertiary structure of the folded protein (Enzymes). Each type of enzyme can only bind with specific substrates, because it is critical that the substrate and the active site of the enzyme align

An enzyme is a biological catalyst that speeds up the rate of reaction in certain biological functions. They play a vital role in many aspects of human physiology and are necessary for the functioning of a number of systems, for example in the digestive system to help to break down food. All enzymes have a unique active site that can fit on to a particular molecular arrangement on a target substrate; a substance e.g. carbohydrate, protein, or fat, that the enzyme is designed to breakdown. There are a number of different enzymes in the human body; each type produced specifically to perform a certain role. Enzymes are not themselves destroyed in the reaction to break down a

Enzymes have a certain shape which when the right chemical molecule for that enzymes shape comes along, it will match the shape perfectly. The area of the certain shape is referred to as the active site of an enzyme, and the molecule that the enzyme works on is known as the substrate. The shape of an enzyme only matches with one type of molecule (Abpischools.org.uk, 2016). Different factors can affect the rate at which enzymes work, the main two factors are pH and temperature. By increasing the temperature, the kinetic energy of the enzyme and the substrate molecules increases as well, this means that they move around faster and have a higher chance of colliding with a molecule.

Basic pH levels work the same way. If a solution is too basic, then the enzyme will also become denatured or have very minimal activity. This is seen in the class data average, where the foam volume was only 1.94375 mL compared to a neutral pH of 7. The neutral pH level worked the best for enzyme activity because it produced the most oxygen in the span of 5 minutes, meaning it was the most reactive out of all 3 pH levels. For this enzyme, the optimal pH level is 7, in which it is most

When an enzyme denatures it means that the bonds in the primary structure of the enzyme have been broken. If an enzyme denatures it will be unable to work and will be rendered useless. All enzymes have optimum conditions such as optimum temperature and optimum pH and it is when these conditions are reached that they will be the most efficient but when they are either above or below the enzyme will not be working as efficiently as

Enzymes are essential proteins that lower the activation energy and provide standard living needs. They regulate pigments, breakdown starches and proteins, act as treatments for heart attacks, cancer and replace old tissues (Alberte et al., 2012). Enzymes act as catalysts which regulate how metabolic processes work. Enzymes are three-dimensional shapes that fit into a reactant molecule known as a substrate. This substrate binds to its specific home known as an active site. When a substrate binds to the active site it creates a process known as the enzyme-substrate complex which creates a final product. The purpose of an active site is to determine the specific characteristics of each enzyme for example the charge, shape and hydrophobic/hydrophilic (Alberte et al., 2012). During this process, the substrate’s chemical bonds are being modified but the enzyme itself is not changed or

An enzyme is a substance that acts as a catalyst in living organisms by speeding up the rates of chemical reactions in that organism (Coker, 2015). Enzymes, which are proteins, are the most common biological catalysts (Herz, 2017). Enzymes are able to increase the rate of chemical reactions by lowering the activation energy needed for a reaction to occur. However, one thing that enzymes do not do is supply free energy to a reaction or change the total energy of a reaction (Herz, 2017). Enzymes also follow a rule of substrate specificity. This means that each enzyme catalyzes the reaction of a single substrate or a group of closely related substrates, and is also the reason why a typical cell in the human body needs over 4,000 enzymes to function (Herz, 2017). Enzymes are also reusable, because they are not consumed in the reactions they catalyze (Coker, 2015). Temperature and pH are two main factors that affect enzyme activity. When fluctuations in temperature and pH occur, an enzyme may denature and lose its function (Coker, 2015). For most enzymes, extremely high temperature and an extremely low and acidic pH can cause the protein to denature.

An enzyme is a biological catalyst. It speeds up a reaction by lowering the activation energy required to start the reaction. It speeds up a reaction, but remains unchanged unless certain limiting factors are introduced. It is composed of polymers of amino acids. An enzyme has an optimum pH and temperature. When an enzyme is at its optimum conditions, the rate of reaction is the fastest. In their globular structure, one or more polypeptide chains twist and fold, bringing together a small number of amino acids to form the active site, or the location on the enzyme where the substrate binds and the reaction takes place. An enzyme has an active site, which has a unique shape into which only a substrate of the exact same unique shape can fit.