Biochemical reactions, redox potentials

Biochemical reactions are basically the same as other chemical organic reactions with their thermodynamic and mechanistic characteristics, but they have the enzyme stage. Laws of thermodynamics, standard energy status and standard free energy change, reduction-oxidation (redox) and electrochemical potential equations are applicable to these reactions. Enzymes catalyse reactions and induce them to be much faster . Enzymes are classified by international... 

When a biochemical half-reaction involves the production or consumption of hydrogen ions, the electrode potential depends on the pH. When reactants are weak acids or bases, the pH dependence may be complicated, but this dependence can be calculated if the pKs of both the oxidized and reduced reactants are known. Standard apparent reduction potentials E ° have been determined for a number of oxidation-reduction reactions of biochemical interest at various pH values, but the E ° values for many more biochemical reactions can be calculated from ArG ° values of reactants from the measured apparent equilibrium constants K. Some biochemical redox reactions can be studied potentiometrically, but often reversibility cannot be obtained. Therefore a great deal of the information on reduction potentials in this chapter has come from measurements of apparent equilibrium constants. 

A transducer is selected with respect to the features of the biochemical reaction. In amme-tering transducers, constant potential applied to the reference electrode and the current generated in the redox transformation of the electrochemically active compound present on the enzymatic electrode surface is measured. Electron transfer rate is controlled by increasing or reducing the potential drop between electrodes. 

For biochemical reactions undergoing oxidation-reduction (redox reaction), the free energy change is related to the electromotive force (emf) or redox potential (AEQ of the reaction ... 

By virtue of unoccupied d-orbitals, iron binds to many ligands - preferably to their oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur atoms. In enzymes and other metalloproteins, iron participates in a large number of biochemical reactions. Its chemical reactivity changes due to the oxidation state, electron spin state and redox potential, the latter ranging from +1000 mV in some heme proteins to —550 mV in some bacterial ferredoxins (Cammack et al. 1990). 

Some quantities valid for reactions modelling different chemical and biochemical processes in waters are shown in Table 3.14. Redox potentials of some biologically important systems are presented in Table 3.15. 

Most of the arsenic compounds that enter the environment undergo chemical transformation. With the exception of the arsenite-arsenate conversion, facilitated by the redox potential of the surrounding media, the transformation reactions are biochemically... 

Early reports on interactions between redox enzymes and ruthenium or osmium compounds prior to the biosensor burst are hidden in a bulk of chemical and biochemical literature. This does not apply to the ruthenium biochemistry of cytochromes where complexes [Ru(NH3)5L] " , [Ru(bpy)2L2], and structurally related ruthenium compounds, which have been widely used in studies of intramolecular (long-range) electron transfer in proteins (124,156-158) and biomimetic models for the photosynthetic reaction centers (159). Applications of these compounds in biosensors are rather limited. The complex [Ru(NHg)6] has the correct redox potential but its reactivity toward oxidoreductases is low reflecting a low self-exchange rate constant (see Tables I and VII). The redox potentials of complexes [Ru(bpy)3] " and [Ru(phen)3] are way too much anodic (1.25 V vs. NHE) ruling out applications in MET. The complex [Ru(bpy)3] is such a powerful oxidant that it oxidizes HRP into Compounds II and I (160). The electron-transfer from the resting state of HRP at pH <10 when the hemin iron(III) is five-coordinate generates a 7i-cation radical intermediate with the rate constant 2.5 x 10 s" (pH 10.3)... 

---