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Chemical Reactions

Chemical Reactions

A chemical reaction is a process by which the bonds in the atoms of substances are rearranged to generate new substances. Matter cannot be created or destroyed in a chemical reaction—the same type and number of atoms that make up the reactants are still present in the products. Merely, the rearrangement of chemical bonds produces new compounds.
Chemical Reactions Rearrange Atoms into New Substances
A chemical reaction takes starting materials—the reactants—and changes them...

Chemical Reactions

Chemical Reactions

A balanced chemical equation provides the information of chemical formulas of the reactants and products involved in the chemical change. A reaction’s stoichiometry helps predict how much of the reactant is needed to produce the desired amount of product, or in some cases, how much product will be formed from a specific amount of the reactant.
The relative amounts of reactants and products represented in a balanced chemical equation are often referred to as stoichiometric amounts.

Introduction to Chemical Reactions

Introduction to Chemical Reactions

All chemical reactions begin with a reactant, the general term for one or more substances entering the reaction. Sodium and chloride ions, for example, are the reactants in the production of table salt. One or more substances produced by a chemical reaction are called the product. Chemical reactions follow the law of conservation of mass, which means that matter cannot be created nor destroyed in a chemical reaction. The components of the reactants—the number of atoms and the...

Reaction Mechanisms

Reaction Mechanisms

Chemical reactions often occur in a stepwise fashion, involving two or more distinct reactions taking place in a sequence. A balanced equation indicates the reacting species and the product species, but it reveals no details about how the reaction occurs at the molecular level. The reaction mechanism (or reaction path) provides details regarding the precise, step-by-step process by which a reaction occurs.
For instance, the decomposition of ozone appears to follow a mechanism with two steps:

Multi-Step Reactions

Multi-Step Reactions

Chemical reactions often occur in a stepwise fashion involving two or more distinct reactions taking place in a sequence. A balanced equation indicates the reacting species and the product species, but it reveals no details about how the reaction occurs at the molecular level. The reaction mechanism (or reaction path) provides details regarding the precise, step-by-step process by which a reaction occurs. Each of the steps in a reaction mechanism is called an elementary reaction. These...

Chemical Equations

Chemical Equations

Chemical equations represent the identities and relative quantities of substances involved in a chemical reaction. The substances undergoing reaction are called reactants, and their formulas are placed on the left side of the equation. The substances generated by the reaction are called products, and their formulas are placed on the right side of the equation. Plus signs (+) separate individual reactant and product formulas, and an arrow (→) separates the reactant and product (left and...

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Plasmid-derived DNA Strand Displacement Gates for Implementing Chemical Reaction Networks

Plasmid-derived DNA Strand Displacement Gates for Implementing Chemical Reaction Networks

Published on: November 25, 2015

Translated chemical reaction networks.

Matthew D Johnston¹

¹Department of Mathematics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 480 Lincoln Dr., Madison, WI, 53706, USA, mjohnston3@wisc.edu.

Bulletin of Mathematical Biology

|March 11, 2014

Summary

This study introduces a new method to analyze chemical reaction networks. It connects the possibility of specific steady states, called toric steady states, to the topology of translated chemical reaction networks.

Area of Science:

Biochemistry
Chemical Kinetics
Systems Biology

Background:

Chemical reaction networks are fundamental to biochemistry and industry.
Their dynamics are often modeled using polynomial ordinary differential equations under mass action kinetics.
Existing methods for analyzing steady states include stoichiometric network analysis, deficiency theory, and algebraic techniques.

Purpose of the Study:

To present a novel method for characterizing steady states in mass action systems.
To link the capacity for toric steady states to topological properties of translated chemical reaction networks.

Main Methods:

Analysis of mass action systems using polynomial ordinary differential equations.
Development of a novel method connecting steady states to network topology.

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Utilizing translated chemical reaction networks, which share reaction vectors but allow different stoichiometries and topologies.

Main Results:

A novel method explicitly links the occurrence of toric steady states to the topological properties of translated chemical reaction networks.
The approach provides a new perspective on understanding the behavior of complex chemical reaction systems.

Conclusions:

The presented method offers a new way to characterize steady states in mass action systems.
Topological properties of translated chemical reaction networks are key to understanding toric steady states.
The findings have potential applications in analyzing biochemical networks.