Enzymes
Enzymes can accelerate biochemical reactions by factors of a million or more under mild conditions of temperature and pH. In thermodynamic terms, how does an enzyme achieve this rate enhancement?
Select the correct option:
Solution
It lowers the activation energy by providing an alternative reaction pathway
Enzymes are biological catalysts, almost all of which are globular proteins, and understanding their action requires separating kinetics from thermodynamics. A catalyst increases reaction rate by offering an alternative pathway with a lower activation energy, so a larger fraction of substrate molecules can surmount the energy barrier at a given temperature; the enzyme binds the substrate at its active site and stabilises the transition state to achieve this. Crucially, a catalyst does not change the thermodynamics of the reaction: the equilibrium constant and the overall free-energy change of reactants to products remain unaltered, so the option claiming the equilibrium constant increases is wrong. Enzymes do not heat the substrate, ruling out the temperature-raising option, and they supply no free energy to the system, so they cannot make a non-spontaneous reaction spontaneous. They merely speed the approach to the same equilibrium in both directions. This matches the NCERT description of enzymes and the general principle of catalysis. As a plausibility check, since a catalyst lowers the activation energy of forward and reverse steps equally, it accelerates both directions and leaves the equilibrium position unchanged, consistent with the laws of thermodynamics.
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About This Question
- Subject
- chemistry
- Chapter
- biomolecules
- Topic
- enzymes
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Year
- 2025
Solution
Correct Answer:
It lowers the activation energy by providing an alternative reaction pathway
Enzymes are biological catalysts, almost all of which are globular proteins, and understanding their action requires separating kinetics from thermodynamics. A catalyst increases reaction rate by offering an alternative pathway with a lower activation energy, so a larger fraction of substrate molecules can surmount the energy barrier at a given temperature; the enzyme binds the substrate at its active site and stabilises the transition state to achieve this. Crucially, a catalyst does not change the thermodynamics of the reaction: the equilibrium constant and the overall free-energy change of reactants to products remain unaltered, so the option claiming the equilibrium constant increases is wrong. Enzymes do not heat the substrate, ruling out the temperature-raising option, and they supply no free energy to the system, so they cannot make a non-spontaneous reaction spontaneous. They merely speed the approach to the same equilibrium in both directions. This matches the NCERT description of enzymes and the general principle of catalysis. As a plausibility check, since a catalyst lowers the activation energy of forward and reverse steps equally, it accelerates both directions and leaves the equilibrium position unchanged, consistent with the laws of thermodynamics.
This medium difficulty chemistry question is from the chapter biomolecules, covering the topic of enzymes. It appeared in the 2025 exam.
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