Biochemistry - Chemical Reactions in Living Cells, Volume 1 - D. Metzler 1980

Bioenergetics of Biochemical Reactions

We all know from personal experience how vital energy is to life. It is common knowledge that we cannot survive without food, and that after hard work we feel not only fatigued, but also hungry. Our body generates heat—this observation alone led Lavoisier around 1780 to the Conclusion that Respiration is a slow combustion of nutrients within the Organism. Later, following the Discovery of the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics, the precise quantitative relationship between heat, energy, and work was established. Contemporary biochemical literature is rife with References to thermodynamic parameters: energy E, enthalpy H, Entropy S, and Gibbs Free energy G.

This chapter has three main objectives: 1) to present and concisely explain the meaning of thermodynamic equations; 2) to provide tables of thermodynamic values for various biochemical compounds and explain how to apply these data to equilibrium states in biochemical systems; and 3) to describe the adenylate system (comprising adenosine triphosphate, adenosine diphosphate, adenosine monophosphate, and inorganic phosphate) and highlight The Central Role of this system in METABOLISM/26.html">Energy Metabolism.

There are numerous textbooks on thermodynamics that can be used for a deeper Study of the subject. Some of these are listed in the bibliography [1–5].