The kinetics of phosphotriester condensation reactions on solid support

A study has been made of the kinetics of condensation reactions in phosphotriester synthesis of oligonucleotides on polystyrene copolymer resin support, using monomers, dimers, and trimers as the coupling units. The condensations follow pseudo first order kinetics, with a rate constant that decreases from monomers to dimers to trimers. Arrhenius plots indicate a nearly constant activation energy of around 10.4 kcal mol-1. Extrapolation to find the Arrhenius preexponential factor, A, is inaccurate because of the limited temperature range studied. But if the assumption is made that Ea is the same for monomer, dimer, and trimer reactions, then the A values are inversely proportional to the surface areas of the coupling units, reinforcing the interpretation of A as a collision efficiency factor.