Capture of spatially homogeneous chemical reactions in tissue by freezing

A useful technique in studying the saturation of hemoglobin in erythrocytes or myoglobin in tissue is cryophotometry, in which tissue is frozen for later spectrophotometric analysis. A general question associated with this technique is whether the freezing process alters the chemical state. This paper presents a theoretical analysis of the simplest model relevant to that question. We study the effect of rapid cooling on a spatially homogeneous chemical reaction. The analysis shows that changes during freezing are negligible near the boundary to which the heat sink is applied, but can be significant deeper in the sample. The distance from the boundary at which the changes during freezing become appreciable can be expressed simply in terms of the chemical reaction rates and the thermal diffusivity of the tissue. Detailed results are given for the case of oxygen and myoglobin in skeletal muscle.