Enhanced diffusion of molecular catalysts is due to convection

Thomas S. C. MacDonald, William S. Price, R. Dean Astumian, Jonathon E. Beves

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Intriguing reports of enhanced diffusion in enzymes and molecular catalysts have spurred significant interest in experimental and theoretical investigations, and the mechanism of this phenomenon is the topic of lively debate. Here we use time-resolved diffusion NMR methods to measure the diffusion coefficients (D) of small molecule species involved in chemical reactions with high temporal resolution. We show the enhanced diffusion of small molecules cannot be explained by reaction velocity, and that apparent measurements of enhanced diffusion by small molecules appear to be caused by bulk fluid flow processes such as convection.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)18864-18867
Number of pages4
JournalAngewandte Chemie (International Edition)
Volume58
Issue number52
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019

Keywords

  • chemotaxis
  • diffusion
  • nuclear magnetic resonance

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