Electrochemical aspects of biological energy conversion - Naumann, R. (Elsevier)
The phosphorylating membrane is treated as an electrochemical energy converter with protons instead of electrons as charge-separating entities. Scalar chemical reactions are taken to be coupled to proton transfer across the membrane-solution interface. A Butler-Volmer type of equation set-up in terms of the electrochemical potential difference of the proton is taken to govern interfacial as well as transmembrane proton flux. This is formally similar to the Butler-Volmer equation used by Gurevich and Kharkats (Yu. Y. Gurevich and Yu. I. Kharkats, J. electroanal. Chem. 200, 3, 1986) for ion transfer across a phase boundary, taking into account surface concentrations of ions not at equilibrium with the bulk.On the basis of the theory of metastable states and hysteresis of polyelectrolytes brought forward by Katchalsky and Spangler (A. Katchalsky and R. Spangler, Q. Rev. Biophys. 1, 127, 1986) the operating at the membrane/solution interface is also shown to act as modulator of self-induced oscillations of proton flux coupled to cooperative phase transitions. This provides an explanation of conformational fluctuations of membrane proteins observed at biological membranes in connection with energy conversion.
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Keywords: V; U