catalayse

[taylor's team]

Hello all can any one help me............???? I have conducted an experiment on the enzyme catalayse. We had 60% hydrogen peroxide which was diluted with 40% water which was then placed into a test tube, we mixed 1g of liver to 20cm2 water and sand and filtered this mixture, 0.5mm of the filtered mixture was then placed into the the hydrogen peroxide (60%) tset tube along with 2 drops of detergent this gave a rapid reaction and caused the foam to overflow the test tube why was this??????? This reaction happened again when usin 70%hydrogen peroxide solution. But we never had an overflow with 10%-50% and no overflow from 80%-100% can u please help as to why we had such an reaction with the 60% and the 70% thankyou L.T.

[LilKim]

Umm... i'm not sure what exactly happened (i'd have to spend a few mins to think about it).

But... Detergents and soaps are "emulsifiers" and when added to cells they disrupt lipid membranes (and lyse cells) ...

.. yet, i think there is more to the story ... but i've gotta run! Please post what you think ... and i'll stop by later ... cuz i'm curious too

good luck!
- KIM

[taylor's team]

yh that is very true Kim but why did we only have a overflow on the 60% and 70% solution as the same amount of detergent was used throughout??

[taylor's team]

Any1 who looks at the orginal message I meant 5ml NOT 5mm sorry L.T

[MrMistery]

Why do people always double-post? That won't get your question answered any sooner you know... I deleted the topic in the general discussion. Sorry but it had to be done

[zonia30]

i think its because that concentration is when the enzyme works best i think i have done this experiment !!! lol wonder if mr taylor spotted this

[canalon]

detergent is not there to lyse cells, you already ground them with the sand. It's just there to make a nicer foam, otherwise there would simply be bubbles in your tube.

Now as for the functionning of the enzyme you have to think about:
what is the foam? how is it formed? hence what are you showing?

And second think about the functions of enzyme etc. zonia already said something, think along those lines.

[LilKim]

I appologize.. canalon is correct! the cells are already "lysed" by the sand filtration thing (sorry.. I read the ? too fast)...

So, if you think about the posts that are up here ... you can figure it out (cuz everyone is leading you in the right direction)...

... the "soap" is added so that you can visualize what's happening in the reaction .... (between catalase and hydrogen peroxide)

think about what's happens when you open a bottle of soda (and you see bubbles rising to the top of the bottle .. and popping) ...

let us know what you think.... we'll make sure that you come to the correct conclusion....

good luck

[taylor's team]

so wen there was an overflow it is basically because of the detergent, i thought it was because the hydrogen peroxide was becomin evaporated due to been exposed to the air for a longer period of time thanx

[canalon]

No evaporation here!

What is the reaction catalysed by the enzyme? think of the products.... The detergent simply make it easier to follow the production of one of the products...

[Evelyn]

I think its because its a higher concentration of hydrogen peroxide than water. i did that test for my coursework but we had to do it with pigs liver and potato but seperate.

[ryanm]

well i am going to try and round up things. catalayse is an enzyme and hydrogen peroxide is a substrate. now we all know that the substrate fits into the active site of the enzyme being the catalayse. this makes two products. the new two products from this particular experiment are oxygen and water. the oxygen is what causes the bubbling motion as it moves to the top of the test tube and also more water causes a rise.