Why Protein Damaged in the Alcohol?

As we all know that the Protein becomes solid when cooked. That is because the protein is denatured. Yet, do you know that there are still lots of methods to denature the protein? This Protein Denaturation experiment helps your kids better understand the feature of protein. Lots of children do this in their science fair experiment.

Ages: 5+          Est. Time: < 10 mins

 Safety 

1. Do not touch ethanol directly.
2. Be careful with the fragile glassware.
3. Be careful with sharp objects.

 Materials List 

• Egg white
• Ethanol
• Toothpick
• Dropper
• Beaker
• Test tube

 Instruction 

Step 1/3 – Take out the egg white. Gently crack two ends of the egg, poke two small holes from the crack of the eggshell with a toothpick, and gently shake egg white out.

Step 2/3 – Pour some ethanol to the test tube (about 3/4 full).

Step 3/3 – Drop the egg white into the alcohol with a dropper. The egg white will become string-like solid.

 Troubleshooting 

Why does my liquid egg white not change into the string like solid?

– The concentration of the ethanol is too low, maybe. Make sure the concentration of alcohol is more than 90%.

 Scientific Description 

The egg white is mainly made from protein, which when touch with alcohol, changes its internal structure and properties of the protein. In this experiment, it turns into solid. There are many methods to damage proteins, such as chemical methods, acid, alkali, and a heavy metal salt, as the physical method, heating, pressurization, dehydration, stirring, sunlight, and ultrasonic waves, and as biology method bacteria and viruses.

 Extensions 

Heat can make the liquid egg turn to solid. And we have been doing this experiment in our daily life when we cook the egg.

 Disposal 

The egg is treated as domestic waste. And, do not forget to wash what you have used.