Appreciating Formal Similarities in the Kinetics of Homogeneous, Heterogeneous, and Enzyme Catalysis

Abstract

Because interest in catalysts is widespread, the kinetics of catalytic reactions have been investigated by widely diverse groups of individuals, including chemists, engineers, and biologists. This has lead to redundancy in theories, particularly with regard to the topics of homogeneous, heterogeneous, and enzyme catalysis. From a pedagogical perspective, it is useful to emphasize the common denominators that link these theories, which is an objective that is readily accomplished by deriving the rate laws for homogeneous, heterogeneous, and enzyme catalytic systems while using the vernacular of those disciplines. In doing so, one may translate the lexicon that is typically associated with those derivations, and this may be useful to individuals who study catalysis from an interdisciplinary perspective.