An Investigation into how the Concentration of Substrate will affect the Rate of an Enzyme Controlled Reaction

Introduction

I am going to investigate how the concentration of hydrogen peroxide affects the rate of reaction between the hydrogen peroxide, and it's enzyme, catalase, which is found in yeast. There are many other factors which will affect the speed with which this reaction can take place.

These include;

-The concentration of the substrate (Hydrogen peroxide)

-The concentration of the yeast solution

-The temperature of both the substrate and of the yeast solution

-The ph of the substrate.

Key Factor

I am investigating the effect on the speed of the reaction of the concentration of the substrate in this experiment. I will do this by changing the concentration of the hydrogen peroxide, and measuring the different amounts of gas produced after a given length of time.

The concentration of the hydrogen peroxide will affect the rate of the reaction. This is because the particles of the hydrogen peroxide, and the catalase have to collide in order for the reaction to happen.

Ball-and-stick model of the hydrogen peroxide mole...

Structure of hydrogen peroxide

Hydrogen peroxide

If there are more hydrogen peroxide particles, then more collisions are likely to happen, and therefore the reaction will occur more quickly. However, at a certain point, the number of hydrogen peroxide particles will be too many, as only one hydrogen peroxide particle can attach onto one catalase enzyme particle. If a graph of speed of reaction against amount of hydrogen peroxide was drawn, then the graph would have a positive correlation, until the graph flattened off at the end.

Key Variables

These factors will also affect the rate at which the reaction can take place.

Concentration of Yeast Solution

The concentration of the yeast solution will affect the speed with which the reaction can take place. This is because the yeast solution contains the enzyme catalase, which is the single specific enzyme which breaks down hydrogen peroxide. The...