Acid denaturation of proteins can be considered catalytic?

[deleted-709254]

I know that protein denaturation can be brought on by both heat treatment and pH extremes, but I was wondering if the H+/OH- ions can be considered a catalyst in this reaction? I recently did a kinetic study where I found the activation energy of egg white denaturation with HCl and without, finding that it was lower with HCl, so I was wondering this could be considered to be acid catalysis, since the H+ ions help unfold the protein? If yes, can you elaborate more on the role of acid in this reaction?

[norman40]

Hi,

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A. Norman

[deleted-709254]

My experiment involved calculating the activation energy of egg white denaturation with and without 0.6 M HCl. I used the arrhenius plot to find the activation energy by plotting ln(rate) vs 1/temperature. I found that the reaction with HCl had a much lower activation energy, and I was wondering if HCl is considered a catalyst in this context. I didn't find any information on this, but because I have to explain the results of my experiment, I came to this forum to get some help!

[norman40]

Hi,

The mechanism for protein denaturation in acidic conditions is explained at the following links:

http://www.chemistryexplained.com/Co-Di ... ation.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denaturat ... chemistry)

The change in activation energy you observed is probably due to the pH effect described. You may want to conduct some background research to confirm this.

I hope this helps. Please post again if you have more questions.

A. Norman