Biofuel Lab

Enzymes make chemical reactions happen more quickly, and because they dont  chemically react with the substrate the can do their job again and again. The reactant in an enzyme-catalyzed reaction is called the substrate, which fits into the active site of the amino acid.  The enzyme positions the substrate in a way where the the transition state of the reaction is stabilized. The enzyme also reduces the amount of energy needed for the reaction to take place.  For the lab we put 500ul of stop solution into every tube, then we put 500ul of buffer into the control tube gently mixed it.  then we took 500ul of the solution and put it into the start cuvette.  then we crushed the mushroom with the mortar and pestle and made a mushroom substrate mixture and added it to the tubes at the designated times.  Ultimately the mushroom extract did work to speed up the reaction time.