Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Depending on how many molecules come together, a reaction can be unimolecular, bimolecular or even trimolecular. The kinetic order of any elementary reaction or reaction step is equal to its molecularity, and the rate equation of an elementary reaction can therefore be determined by inspection, from the molecularity. [1]
When used to model enzyme rates in vivo , for example, to model a metabolic pathway, this representation is inadequate because under these conditions product is present. As a result, when building computer models of metabolism [ 1 ] or other enzymatic processes, it is better to use the reversible form of the Michaelis–Menten equation.
Biochemical reactions involving a single substrate are often assumed to follow Michaelis–Menten kinetics, without regard to the model's underlying assumptions. Only a small proportion of enzyme-catalysed reactions have just one substrate, but the equation still often applies if only one substrate concentration is varied.
The rate for a bimolecular gas-phase reaction, A + B → product, predicted by collision theory is [6] = = ()where: k is the rate constant in units of (number of molecules) −1 ⋅s −1 ⋅m 3.
A reaction can also have an undefined reaction order with respect to a reactant if the rate is not simply proportional to some power of the concentration of that reactant; for example, one cannot talk about reaction order in the rate equation for a bimolecular reaction between adsorbed molecules:
The actual reaction order for a bimolecular unit reaction could be between 2 and 2 + 1 / 3 , which makes sense because the diffusive collision time is squarely dependent on the distance between the two molecules. These new equations also avoid the singularity on the adsorption rate at time zero for the Langmuir-Schaefer equation.
An example progress curve for an enzyme assay is shown above. The enzyme produces product at an initial rate that is approximately linear for a short period after the start of the reaction. As the reaction proceeds and substrate is consumed, the rate continuously slows (so long as the substrate is not still at saturating levels).
The bimolecular nucleophilic substitution (S N 2) is a type of reaction mechanism that is common in organic chemistry. In the S N 2 reaction, a strong nucleophile forms a new bond to an sp 3 -hybridised carbon atom via a backside attack, all while the leaving group detaches from the reaction center in a concerted (i.e. simultaneous) fashion.