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Updated: Jul 2, 2026

Unraveling Entropic Rate Acceleration Induced by Solvent Dynamics in Membrane Enzymes
Published on: January 16, 2016
How fast is a fast equilibrium? A new view of reversible reactions
Carlos Baleizão1, Mário N Berberan-Santos
1CQFM-Centro de Química-Física Molecular and IN-Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal.
Abstract:
Reversible reactions are described in terms of kinetic cycles. From this description, two useful parameters arise: 1) average cycle duration and 2) average number of cycles. The latter applies to cycles with at least one unstable species. These parameters allow answering the question "How fast is a fast equilibrium?" in absolute and in relative terms, respectively. The general interest of the approach is demonstrated by application to reactions drawn from several areas: Acid-base equilibria, enzyme kinetics, excited-state proton transfer, thermally activated delayed fluorescence, monomer-excimer kinetics and homo-FRET.
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