Practical Investigation: Catalase Enzyme Reaction and H2O2

This practical investigation examines the effect of hydrogen peroxide concentration on the rate of the catalase enzyme reaction. The research employs a quantitative methodology, utilizing experimental research design where different groups perform experiments with varying hydrogen peroxide concentrations. The study analyzes the relationship between hydrogen peroxide concentration and the rate of the catalase enzyme reaction, collecting both primary data from experiments and secondary data from various sources like books, journals, and online resources. Data analysis involves thematic analysis to interpret the results from the different experimental groups, highlighting deviations and averages. The results reveal that different groups obtain varied results even at specific hydrogen peroxide concentrations, with a direct relationship between hydrogen peroxide concentration and the class average rate and an inverse relationship between concentration and class average results. The study also identifies limitations, such as potential premature timing in some groups, and variations in experimental techniques, influencing the final outcomes. The investigation concludes the impact of hydrogen peroxide concentration on the rate of catalase enzyme reaction, offering valuable insights into enzyme kinetics and the factors affecting reaction rates.

Carrying Out a Practical
Investigation (Biology)

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Aim..............................................................................................................................................3
Rationale......................................................................................................................................3
Methodology................................................................................................................................3
Approach......................................................................................................................................4
Philosophy...................................................................................................................................5
Research Design..........................................................................................................................5
Data Collection............................................................................................................................5
Data analysis................................................................................................................................7
Results and Findings....................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................9
Limitations...................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

Title: To show the effect of Hydrogen Peroxide concentration on the rate of catalase enzyme
reaction.
Aim
To analyse the effect of Hydrogen Peroxide concentration on the rate of reaction of catalase
enzyme.
Rationale
The main reason of doing the research is to analyse the effect which hydrogen peroxide
concentration has on the reaction rate of catalase enzyme. This reaction is used in majority of the
reactions which take place in chemistry labs. This is why it must to analyse this impact.
Hydrogen peroxide is the most important chemical which act as mild antiseptic which can help
in preventing infection of minor cuts, burns or scrapes (Sindi and et.al., 2019). Catalase enzyme
is also a very important enzyme which is found in living organisms which are exposed to oxygen
such as plants, animals, bacteria etc. This decomposes the hydrogen peroxide into oxygen and
water and helps in protecting cell from oxidative damage by reaction with the oxygen species
(ROS).
Methodology
The methodology chosen in this research is the quantitative type of research which is
used to investigate about the effect of Hydrogen Peroxide concentration on the rate of catalase
enzyme reaction. Enzymes are most essential things for the survival of human beings. These are
considered as the proteins which help in transforming the chemicals in the body which functions
as a catalyst. Catalyst helps in getting the reactions happening faster by increasing the rate of the
reaction. In every reaction, there is a need of minimum amount of energy which is known as
activation energy (Hu and et.al., 2017). This was observed that lower the activation energy is the
faster the reaction takes place. On the other hand, if the activation energy is too high then the
reaction does not occur at all.
Enzymes have the ability for lowering the activation energy of chemical reaction through
interaction with the chemicals involved in the reaction. There are various enzymes among which
catalase are a very common enzyme which is present in all the organisms which are exposed to
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oxygen. The main aim of the catalase enzyme in the living cells is protecting the cells from the
oxidative damage which basically occurs when the molecules or the cells come in contact with
the other oxidative compounds. This is not a man made process instead a result of natural
process or reaction which happens inside the cells of human beings (Litosseliti, 2018). There can
be involvement of the by-products in the reactions such as hydrogen peroxide which is
considered to be harmful for the body. This can be similar to the ways in which by-product of a
nice bonfire can become unwanted smoke which leads to cough or stings to the eyes. In order to
prevent such damage, the catalase enzyme helps to get rid of these compounds when the
hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is broken down into harmless water and oxygen.
The practical methods are mostly used in this research to achieve the objectives. The
methodology which was applied for gaining the quantitative information in this research is the
practical experimentation which is done and the results were found. This is why; the research
was based on the quantitative type of information. This methodology can be appropriate in order
to gain significant findings and outcomes. This is chosen because there is no need of the
evidence because the practical is performed which can help in providing the evidence. The
experiment was done by 4 groups in which they performed the experiment with different
concentrations of hydrogen peroxide (Atmowardoyo, 2018). This research aim can only be
achieved by making use of quantitative information which can be obtained by practical which is
performed by the groups.
Approach
This is the section of research which decides that whether any theory needs to be tested or
any theory needs to be generated. On the same basis, there are two main types of approaches
which are inductive and deductive. Inductive approach deals in creating and developing theory
while on the other hand the deductive approach lays emphasis on the testing of the theory. In this
theory no theory can be generated after getting the outcomes and conclusions instead hypothesis
needs to be checked and tested. Catalase enzyme is considered to be acting as catalysing enzyme
in decomposing substance into another (Cypress, 2018). Catalase enzyme is responsible for
decomposing or breaking down hydrogen peroxide into oxygen and water. Based on this theory,
research will be done, this is how deductive approach will be used in this research. This will help
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in analysing and testing the theories according to which practical experiment will be carried out
and undertaken.
Philosophy
The research philosophy gives a brief outline regarding the ways in which research is
carried out. This is divided into various types including interpretivism and positivism. Positivism
philosophy deals in simplifying social reality into various theories and laws whereas the
interpretivism philosophy deals in interpreting social reality by making use of the subjective
view of participants. In the current investigation, there is no need of analysing the views or
opinions of participants or respondents instead the quantitative information is needed to be
obtained through experiment (Nazir, Hussain and Fariduddin, 2019). This will help in linking
theory established with the results gained through experiments. Therefore, positivism philosophy
can be used to gain significant findings in this research.
Research Design
This is basically the framework including the research techniques and methods which the
researcher chooses. There are various types of research design including the experimental,
correlational, survey, review, semi-experimental, descriptive and many more. This research will
be carried out by using the experimental research design which means relationship is established
between two variables where impact is caused on dependent variable by independent’s variable
influence. In this case the dependent variable is the catalase enzyme and the independent variable
is the hydrogen peroxide. This is how, the impact will be analysed by making use of this design.
In this research design, changes are made in the independent variable for monitoring the change
in the dependent one (Müller and et.al., 2018). This is how, the significant findings can be
obtained and appropriate outcomes can be gained.
Data Collection
This is the process in which data is gathered from various sources in order to gain in-
depth insights about the research topic. This can be primary as well as secondary. Primary data
collection means the data is collected by the researcher itself whereas on the other hand
secondary data means the data is collected from the already collected data by someone else. This
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is how, this research made use of both the resources because qualitative information about the
reactions, enzyme, catalase, hydrogen peroxide, its impacts on the catalase enzyme and many
more can be collected through the various secondary resources such as books related to subject
or topic, journals, various publications, articles, online websites, various chemistry books and
many more other sources (Queirós, Faria and Almeida, 2017). The primary source of information
in this case is the practical experiment which can be done through dividing the whole class into
groups and then the experiment is done by each group with different hydrogen peroxide
concentration. Results of each group will be compared and then deviations will be noted. This is
how; the outcomes will be decided according to the deviations.
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Data analysis
This is the most important stage in any research as it analyses the data collected from
different sources including primary and secondary. This directly impacts the results and findings
and also helps in drawing major conclusions. There are various ways to analyse the data gained
including thematic and SPSS. Thematic analysis can be used in the researches where qualitative
information needs to be analysed and it can also analyse simpler quantitative data. SPSS tools are
used for analysing the complex quantitative data gained from quantitative sources. In the current
investigation, thematic analysis can be used by analysing the data obtained through experiment
by the 4 groups and then examining the deviations found through the same. The average of the
results is then taken by considering the results obtained by taking particular concentration of
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hydrogen peroxide (García-García and et.al., 2018). The anomalies highlighted in the table will
also be analysed which will help in achieving the research objectives.
Results and Findings
This can be observed from the results of the experiment that at 2% concentration of H2O2, all
the groups got different results. Group 1 obtained 3.4, Group 2 got 2.78, Group 3 got 2.86 and
Group 4 got 3.04. This can be identified that the average answer got by 4 groups is 3.02. This
means that there is little deviation in the group 2 and 4 results from the average results.
Furthermore, in the concentration 1% H2O2, the group 1 results are 7.4, group 2 results are 4.31,
group 3 results are 4.9 and group 4 results got are 4.69. The average results obtained for this
concentration obtained was 5.3 (Kolupaev and et.al., 2017). This is how, it was observed as the
closest results obtained were from group 3 and 4. The deviation was found in the group 1 and 2.
This is how for every concentration some groups found nearest results while the other groups
found the results with largest deviations. This means that for the same concentrations also the
different groups can get different answers. This was also evaluated that as the concentration of
hydrogen peroxide is decreased, the effect on the rate of catalase enzyme reaction is increased.
For example, when the concentration of H2O2 was 2 then the class average result was 3.02
whereas when the concentration is 0.2 then the class average comes to be 11.33 which means
with the decreasing percentage concentration of H2O2, the class average results increased. On the
other hand, the class average rate (which is in seconds * 10-3) decreases (Bucekova and et.al.,
2018). Overall this was observed through the table of the class results that the average results of
the classes is directly proportional to the class average rate but inversely proportional to the class
average results. This was also interpreted that the results of group 2 were found with greater
deviations and the other groups got similar results. This was also observed in group 2 at 0.2
concentration that there may have over saturated the filter paper. This was also examined from
results of group 4 at 1.6 concentrations that there is larger variation which suggests that group 1
had larger amount of enzyme on the disk. This is the reason they have failed in tapping the
excess off the disk which helps in speeding up the reaction (Chu and Ke, 2017). Furthermore,
this was also evaluated that at groups 1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.8 and 2, the group is likely to be premature
with the timing of end point as these results are quicker as compared to the results of other
groups.
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CONCLUSION
The research concluded about the impact of concentration of hydrogen peroxide on the rate
of catalase enzyme reaction. The study focussed on the primary and secondary sources of data
collection in which the secondary sources include the books consisting of various reactions,
journals, publications, articles and online websites while the primary source was only the
experiment which was done by 4 groups of a class. The main conclusions found were that every
group obtained different results even at specific percentage of concentration of hydrogen
peroxide. Also, it was examined that there is a direct relationship between the concentration of
hydrogen peroxide and class average rate whereas inverse relationship between the concentration
and class average results. This is how; the impact of hydrogen peroxide on the catalase enzyme
reaction rate was assessed.
Limitations
There were not major limitations of the research as qualitative and quantitative both types
of research were used. The experiment was done which helped in gaining numerical information.
But there was lack of wide qualitative information which must be collected from wide range of
sources. In the future researches, there must be larger quality and quantity of theoretical
information (Elsebai and et.al., 2017). There must be various evidences used for testing the
hypothesis because the numerical information only cannot be enough for proving the theories
and hypothesis. This is how, future works in same themes can be improved. The pictorial
representations could be more helpful in gaining insights but the experiment also proved to be
efficient in available time and resources. Human participation could also be involved in the
future researches.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Atmowardoyo, H., 2018. Research methods in TEFL studies: Descriptive research, case study,
error analysis, and R & D. Journal of Language Teaching and Research. 9(1). pp.197-
204.
Bucekova, M. and et.al., 2018. Phytochemicals-mediated production of hydrogen peroxide is
crucial for high antibacterial activity of honeydew honey. Scientific reports. 8(1). pp.1-
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Chu, H. and Ke, Q., 2017. Research methods: What's in the name?. Library & Information
Science Research. 39(4). pp.284-294.
Cypress, B., 2018. Qualitative research methods: A phenomenological focus. Dimensions of
Critical Care Nursing. 37(6). pp.302-309.
Elsebai, B. and et.al., 2017. Catalase based hydrogen peroxide biosensor for mercury
determination by inhibition measurements. Journal of hazardous materials. 340. pp.344-
350.
García-García, P. and et.al., 2018. Co-localization of oxidase and catalase inside a porous
support to improve the elimination of hydrogen peroxide: oxidation of biogenic amines
by amino oxidase from Pisum sativum. Enzyme and microbial technology. 115. pp.73-
80.
Hu, M. and et.al., 2017. Fibrous nanozyme dressings with catalase-like activity for H2O2
reduction to promote wound healing. ACS applied materials & interfaces. 9(43).
pp.38024-38031.
Kolupaev, Y.E. and et.al., 2017. The participation of calcium ions and reactive oxygen species in
the induction of antioxidant enzymes and heat resistance in plant cells by hydrogen
sulfide donor. Applied Biochemistry and Microbiology. 53(5). pp.573-579.
Litosseliti, L. ed., 2018. Research methods in linguistics. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Müller, G. and et.al., 2018. The impact of hydrogen peroxide supply on LPMO activity and
overall saccharification efficiency of a commercial cellulase cocktail. Biotechnology for
biofuels. 11(1). pp.1-17.
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Nazir, F., Hussain, A. and Fariduddin, Q., 2019. Hydrogen peroxide modulate photosynthesis
and antioxidant systems in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) plants under copper
stress. Chemosphere. 230. pp.544-558.
Queirós, A., Faria, D. and Almeida, F., 2017. Strengths and limitations of qualitative and
quantitative research methods. European Journal of Education Studies.
Sindi, A. and et.al., 2019. Anti-biofilm effects and characterisation of the hydrogen peroxide
activity of a range of Western Australian honeys compared to Manuka and multifloral
honeys. Scientific reports. 9(1). pp.1-17.
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