Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 16, 2026

Supercritical Nitrogen Processing for the Purification of Reactive Porous Materials
Published on: May 15, 2015
A review on the effects of supercritical carbon dioxide on enzyme activity
Zdenĕk Wimmer1, Marie Zarevúcka2
1Institute of Experimental Botany AS CR, Isotope Laboratory, Vídenská 1083, 142 20 Prague 4-Krc, Czech Republic.
Abstract:
Different types of enzymes such as lipases, several phosphatases, dehydrogenases, oxidases, amylases and others are well suited for the reactions in SC-CO(2). The stability and the activity of enzymes exposed to carbon dioxide under high pressure depend on enzyme species, water content in the solution and on the pressure and temperature of the reaction system. The three-dimensional structure of enzymes may be significantly altered under extreme conditions, causing their denaturation and consequent loss of activity. If the conditions are less adverse, the protein structure may be largely retained. Minor structural changes may induce an alternative active protein state with altered enzyme activity, specificity and stability.
Related Concept Videos
Enzyme Inhibition
Introduction to Enzyme Kinetics
The experimenter can then plot the initial reaction rate or velocity (Vo) of a given trial against the substrate concentration ([S]) to obtain a graph of the reaction properties. For many enzymatic reactions involving a...
Supercritical Fluid Chromatography
SFC utilizes a supercritical fluid mobile phase,...
Enzyme Kinetics
Scientists typically study enzyme kinetics with a fixed amount of enzyme in the controlled environment of a test tube. When more reactant, or substrate, is...
Factors Affecting Activity Coefficient
The activity coefficient value for an ion is close to one when the solution has almost zero ionic strength, i.e., when the solution shows close to ideal behavior. As the ionic strength of the solution increases from 0 to 0.1 mol/L, a decrease in the...
Enzymes
Enzyme deficiencies can often translate into life-threatening diseases. For example, a genetic abnormality resulting in the deficiency of the enzyme G6PD...

