Questions:

1. Heat catalase and H2O2 too?

2. Plot a graph between temperature and rate of reaction?

Complete the following parts and upload the proposal by 12 April 2024 (Friday) to MB.

You are required to provide 2 – 3 references for the investigation.

Topic :

Research Question: How does increasing the temperature affect the rate of decomposition of
hydrogen peroxide by catalase (0.1%)

Methodology (Cite the reference links, books, journals etc. using MLA format of citation and
referencing)

A paragraph to briefly introduce the methodology

The conversion of hydrogen peroxide to water and oxygen by catalase is a well understood two-step
process whereby catalase heme Fe+3 reduces one molecule of hydrogen peroxide to water,
generating a covalent Fe+4O oxyferryl species and a porphyrin cation radical. This reaction
intermediate, referred to as compound I, then oxidizes a second hydrogen peroxide molecule forming
molecular oxygen and another molecule of water1. The rate of decomposition of hydrogen peroxide
can be found by measuring the time taken for a particular volume of oxygen to evolve2. Through the
ideal gas equation, one can determine the mol of oxygen released. One can then determine the mol
of hydrogen peroxide decomposed; divided that by time, we could obtain the rate of decomposition.
My hypothesis is that the higher the temperature, the faster the rate of decomposition.

The rate of decomposition can also be derived from the Arrhenius equation. Since the activation
energy of hydrogen peroxide has a literature value, by backwards calculation, we can find the rate
constant. This would facilitate the evaluation part of the IA.

For a typical reaction aA + bB ! cC + dD, the rate reaction is given by: rate = k [A]x [B]y .

Procedure (tentative)
- Prepare a water bath at 290.0K. Put a test tube with 5cm3 of catalase into the water bath
- H2O2 solution with a concentration of 0.01mol/dm^3 and also heat it to 290K
- Use a pipette to transfer the catalase into the H2O2 solution beaker
- A glass syringe is connected through a pipe
- Measure the time taken for 25cm^2 of oxygen to evolve
- Repeat these steps with a different temperature, i.e 292.5K, 295.0K, 297.5K, 300K

Variable table

1
Heck, D.E. et al. (2010) ‘Mechanisms of oxidant generation by catalase’, Annals of the New York
Academy of Sciences, 1203(1), pp. 120–125. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2010.05603.x.
2
https://thesciencecodex.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/final-chemistry-ia.pdf
 In the variable table, you need to state the IV, DV and CVs. You also need to briefly explain
why and describe how you have controlled the CVs.

IV: Temperature (K)

DV: Amount of oxygen evolved (cm^3)

CV:

- Concentration of H2O2. The rate of reaction also depends on the concentration of H2O2. In
order to show that the change in rate of reaction is entirely due to change in temperature, it
has to be kept constant
- Amount of H2O2 and Catalase. Rate of reaction depends on both of them.
- Pressure should be constant throughout the experiment (for the ideal gas equation
calculation)
- pH kept constant. This ensures that the catalase was operating at its optimum pH (Su).

Draft data table

Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 Trial 5

290.0K Rate constant

292.5K

295.0K

297.5K

300.0K

* The name of the document should be named as G11B_student name_proposal (e.g. G11B_Mak
Ida_proposal)