Carbon monoxide, metastable experiments

In all the experiments and thermodynamic calculations, it was assumed that carbon monoxide was stable at the time of decomposition of iron carbonate and was removed from the rocks being metamorphosed. Nor were possible secondary reactions in the case of oxidation of FeC03 by water taken into account—the result of the reactions would be the formation of some CO, CH4 and more complex hydrocarbons. Such assumptions are valid in examining the results of short-term experiments in which metastable carbon monoxide arises and does not undergo subsequent decomposition. However, in long-term natural processes the establishment of complete equilibrium between all the components of the gas phase, with the decom-... 

Michel and co-workers have recently dismissed the notion of a metastable state of the fully oxidised enzyme, Oh. In their experiments they produced the F state by treating the oxidised enzyme with H2O2. Subsequently, they exposed the enzyme in the F state to carbon monoxide, which is known to react with F by a strict two-electron reduction. Consequently, this procedure yields an E state without forming the metastable intermediate Oh (see Fig. 2-3). Hence, their report that photo-induced reduction of the E state produced this way (we would ascribe this state to Eh) is linked to proton translocation does not contradict our notion, but rather strengthens it. 

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