Reciprocal Sum Expression for Steady-state Kinetics --Enzyme Reactions and Voltammetry--

Abstract

Steady-state experiments are often conducted to understand complicated cases in chemistry, since the kinetics does not have a time valuable and allows simple modeling of the reactions. The reciprocal of the overall rate of sequential steady-state reactions is often given in the reciprocal sum formula: sum of the reciprocals of the rates of the hypothetical rate-limiting processes at the individual stages. In this paper, the reciprocal sum relationship is generalized for sequential multi-step steady-state reactions, and the importance and usefulness of the concept is shown by applying it to describe several typical steady-state systems in enzyme reactions and voltammetry using rotating disk- and ultramicro-electrodes.