Lab Report Catalase

An enzyme is a tertiary globular protein. The function of an enzyme is to lower the activation energy of either the creation or breaking apart of a chemical bond. By lowering the activation energy of this process, the reaction of bonding, or in this case breaking apart, is sped up. An enzyme breaks apart the substrate in the active site of the enzyme; this is where the magic happens. Substrate is what is being broken apart by the enzyme. In this case, the enzyme is catalase and the substrate is hydrogen peroxide, or 2H2O2. As the catalase and the substrate interact, the substrate is brought into the catalase and broken apart into water and oxygen. This process may be able to happen naturally, but the enzyme, catalase, speeds up the process.
To begin this test, 3 water baths were set up. One bath was cooled to 0 degrees celsius, one was heated to 37 degrees celsius, and one was boiled to 100 degrees celsius. 1 of the four test tubes containing 2 ml of 100 units/ml catalase was put in to each of the three water baths, one at a time. While the tubes sat in the baths, the 4 H2O2 vials were prepared and the depth of the H2O2 was recorded. After the 0 degree celsius test tube incubated in it's bath, it was taken out and a filter was dropped into it and drained on a paper towel. The filter was then dropped into one of the 3% H2O2 vials. The distance traveled and the time was recorded in the data chart. This process was repeated for each of the test tubes at different
In general, there is always human error. This could cause measurements to be off a bit, timing to be too long or too short, or even recorded data to be mistaken. Also, perhaps the test tubes did not incubate in the water baths long enough or maybe too long so the temperature was not precise. Scientists may have forgotten one of the tests, so that data is lost. Specific errors include measuring the entire test tube from top to bottom instead of measuring the exact distance traveled by the filter paper, making the test results not plausible. The results of this lab proved several things. The results of the first test show that a higher enzyme concentration causes a faster rate of the substrate being broken down. This means that the effect of enzyme concentration on enzyme activity is a positive effect and speeds up enzyme activity. The reason that the results turned out as they did is because with more enzymes to do the work, that leaves less work to be done by the other enzymes so the work gets done