General Methods for Determining Thermodynamic Properties

There are many different ways in which the changes in conformation of a macromolecule or binding of ligands can be observed experimentally. Some of these methods, such as the calorimetric techniques described above, give thermodynamic information directly. Other methods, many of them based on spectroscopic changes (see Chapter 2), are more indirect, but we can still obtain useful thermodynamic data provided we have a reasonable idea about what is going on in the process. 

How might we analyse such data to obtain useful thermodynamic information The following sections illustrate how this can be done. 

Measurements of K across the temperature range can be used to derive A// nfand A5 f 

The same approach may be used to determine K and AGSnf at other temperatures, giving the following results (check these for yourself)  

A rough estimate of the enthalpy and entropy of unfolding can be made using  

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