Abstract
We develop a thermodynamic framework for closed and open chemical networks applicable to non-elementary reactions that do not need to obey mass action kinetics. It only requires the knowledge of the kinetics and of the standard chemical potentials, and makes use of the topological properties of the network (conservation laws and cycles). Our approach is proven to be exact if the network results from a bigger network of elementary reactions where the fast-evolving species have been coarse grained. Our work should be particularly relevant for energetic considerations in biosystems where the characterization of the elementary dynamics is seldomly achieved.
Highlights
Many processes in biology result from the combined effect of numerous elementary chemical reactions obeying mass-action kinetics
In the present work we develop a thermodynamics directly applicable to chemical networks of non-elementary reactions described by deterministic non-mass action rate equations
It is important to note that first equation (33) establishes the same correspondence between the equilibrium concentrations peq of the effective dynamics (19) and the standard chemical potentials μ ◦ as equation (32) does between zeq and μ◦ for the elementary reactions
Summary
Complex Systems and Statistical Mechanics, Department of Physics and Materials Science, University of Luxembourg, L-1511 Luxembourg 1 Author to whom any correspondence should be addressed.
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