Does Too Much Salt Affect The Reaction Rate

The hypothesis proposed that if a small amount of salt was added to the reaction, then it cause the rate of the reaction to speed up, but if too much salt was added, then it will instead decrease the rate of the reaction. The data revealed that no additional amount of salt was the reaction that had the highest rate. As shown previously in the data table, the first trial’s average reaction rate of 4.5 mL/min was higher than the other two reaction rates where salt was added for trial 2 and trial3, 2.125 mL/min and 3.5 mL/min, respectively. There was some support for the prediction. Our prediction included the point that if too much salt was added, then the reaction rate would slow down, which is what is demonstrated by the second trial, with 5 mL of salt water. The data revealed that the average rate of reaction for
The results for this experiment show that salt, while it might be beneficial in extremely small amounts relative to the amounts tested for other variables such as the enzyme and substrate in this experiment, actually slows down the rate of the reaction compared to a reaction without any addition of salt. The reason that this happened is because with the extreme amounts of salt added, the independent variable, especially in trial 2, it blocked the active sites of the enzymes, which is why the substrate, hydrogen peroxide, couldn’t follow the induced fit function and bind with the enzyme, catalase, which is why the reaction rate, the dependent variable, in the bigger picture slowed down. The results make sense in the light of the concept about salt concentrations affecting the binding of substrate to enzymes, and how they can affect the shape of the active site. If too little salt is added, then the side chains on the enzymes will be attracted to each other, which will result in denaturation of the side