Overview of Bioenergetics and Oxidative Phosphorylation
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Bioenergetics describes the transfer and utilization of energy in biologic systems. It makes use of a few basic ideas from the field of thermodynamics, particularly the concept of free energy.
Bioenergetics and Oxidative Phosphorylation
OVERVIEW
Bioenergetics describes
the transfer and utilization of energy in biologic systems. It makes use of a
few basic ideas from the field of thermodynamics, particularly the concept of
free energy. Changes in free energy provide a measure of the energetic
feasibility of a chemical reaction and can, therefore, allow prediction of
whether a reaction or process can take place. Bioenergetics concerns only the
initial and final energy states of reaction components, not the mechanism or
how much time is needed for the chemical change to take place (the rate). In
short, bioenergetics predicts if a process is possible, whereas kinetics
measures how fast the reaction occurs.
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