Carboxylic acids activity profiles

There are two catalytically active residues in pepsin Asp-32 and Asp-215. Their ionizations are seen in the pH-activity profile, which has an optimum at pH 2 to 3, and which depends upon the acidic form of a group of pKa 4.5 and the basic form of a group of pKa 1.1.160,161 The pKa values have been assigned from the reactions of irreversible inhibitors that are designed to react specifically with ionized or un-ionized carboxyl groups. Diazo compounds—such as A-diazoacetyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester, which reacts with un-ionized carboxyls—react specifically with Asp-215 up to pH 5 or so (equation 16.28).162-164 Epoxides, which react specifically with ionized carboxyls, modify Asp-32 (equation 16.29). 

The pH-rate profiles of the enol of l-indene-3-carboxylic acid and of its ketene precursor, formed from either l-diazo-2( 1 //jnaphthalenone or 2-diazo-l(2//)naphthalenone by photochemical deazotization and Wolff rearrangement, are shown in Fig. 5.36 The first and second acidity constants of the diol, p = 1.9 and p aE = 8.3, are evident from the downward curvature of log (k /s-1) at these pH values. The photo-Wolff rearrangement of diazonaphthoquinones is the active principle of Novolak photoresists. 

From the determined axial profile of oxygen activity in the catalyst it can be concluded that the catalyst under working conditions is always in a reduced state, with the aldehyde acting as a stronger reducing agent than the carboxylic acid. 

---