The Kinetics of Protein Denaturation

Abstract

Tim first work carried out on the rate of the heat denaturation of egg-albumin was that of Chick and Martin [1910], who found that the reaction velocity slowed off more rapidly than was accounted for by the unimolecular law. They also found that the hydrogen ion concentration (in acid solution) and the hydroxyl ion concentration (in alkaline solution) were reduced during the course of the reaction', and to this they attributed the falling off of reaction velocity mentioned above. This alteration of the hydrogen ion concentration (or more briefly the pH of the solution) has been confirmed by Quagliariello [1912], S0rensen and Jurgensen [1911], and more recently by Wu and Wu [1925]. In later papers, Chick and Martin [1912] show that when precautions