1Dipartimento di Chimica, Università di Firenze, via della Lastruccia 3, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze (ITALY)
World Journal of Chemical Education.
2015,
Vol. 3 No. 3, 59-63
DOI: 10.12691/wjce-3-3-1
Copyright © 2015 Science and Education PublishingCite this paper: Laura Moroni, Cristina Gellini, Pier Remigio Salvi. Thermal Denaturation of Proteins and Chemical Equilibrium.
World Journal of Chemical Education. 2015; 3(3):59-63. doi: 10.12691/wjce-3-3-1.
Correspondence to: Pier Remigio Salvi, Dipartimento di Chimica, Università di Firenze, via della Lastruccia 3, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze (ITALY). Email:
piero.salvi@unifi.itAbstract
The thermal denaturation of proteins is considered as a process by means of which chemical equilibrium can be introduced to undergraduate students of Chemistry related curricula. In this approach chemical potential μ, Gibbs energy G, degree of advancement ξ and Le Châtelier principle are integrated with chemical equilibrium. With reference to α-Chymotrypsinogen A as a test case, the process is discussed in terms of a simplified two-state model. The activity is addressed to physical chemistry students in combination with computer-aided work mainly involving storage/manipulation of large data sets and plot preparation.
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