Thermal Denaturation of Proteins and Chemical Equilibrium

Laura Moroni¹, Cristina Gellini¹ and Pier Remigio Salvi^1,

¹Dipartimento di Chimica, Università di Firenze, via della Lastruccia 3, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze (ITALY)

Cite this paper:
Laura Moroni, Cristina Gellini and 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

Abstract

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.

Keywords:
first-year undergraduate/physical chemistry; computer-aided learning; chemical equilibrium

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