Enzyme Under Different Environmental Conditions Lab Report

The purpose of this lab was to compare the action of a catalyst (enzyme) under different environmental conditions. This was determined by performing a variety of different experiments. The first experiment was performed by adding hydrogen peroxide to sand. Due to the fact that the sand was not soluble in the hydrogen peroxide, no reaction thus no catalyst were present. Manganese dioxide was also added to the hydrogen peroxide creating a moderately fast reaction thus leading to believe that an enzyme was present to lower the activation energy and speed up the reaction. When the manganese dioxide was added to the hydrogen peroxide it catalyzes and breaks down the hydrogen peroxide and oxygen gas thus creating a decomposition reaction. Overall, the reaction released 18mL of gas (Refer to Appendix, Table 1) and had enzymes present which work as catalyst. The second test performed was the effect of an enzyme by using hydrogen peroxide, liver, and potatoes. When reacting a small piece of liver with hydrogen peroxide a large reaction occurred. There was a
The old liver was mixed with the hydrogen peroxide creating the the same size reaction due the fact that the enzyme was not used up, therefore allowing the reaction to catalyze again. After the first reaction with the liver the catalyst regenerated, and was able to be used again and catalyze the same reaction (Nelson Biology, 2003). Since the same reaction occurred the observations were very similar including, production of gas, production of heat, and producing the same amount of gas (Refer to Appendix, Table 3). When the used liver and new liver was combined with the hydrogen peroxide it created a larger surface area, and added more catalyst which caused the reaction to occur faster than the others (Refer to Appendix, Table 3). Since the liver has a catalyst that is re-usable these results make