On the steady-state assumption and its application to the rotating disk voltammetry of adsorbed enzymes

J Phys Chem B. 2005 Mar 31;109(12):5766-73. doi: 10.1021/jp0454570.

Abstract

Rotating disk voltammetry is routinely used to study electrochemically driven enzyme catalysis because of the assumption that the method produces a steady-state system. This assumption is based on the sigmoidal shape of the voltammograms. We have introduced an electrochemical adaptation of the King-Altman method to simulate voltammograms in which the enzyme catalysis, within an immobilized enzyme layer, is steady-state. This method is readily adaptable to any mechanism and provides a readily programmable means of obtaining closed form analytical equations for a steady-state system. The steady-state simulations are compared to fully implicit finite difference (FIFD) simulations carried out without any steady-state assumptions. On the basis of our simulations, we conclude that, under typical experimental conditions, steady-state enzyme catalysis is unlikely to occur within electrode-immobilized enzyme layers and that typically sigmoidal rotating disk voltammograms merely reflect a mass transfer steady state as opposed to a true steady state of enzyme intermediates at each potential.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adsorption
  • Catalysis
  • Electrochemistry*
  • Enzymes, Immobilized / chemistry
  • Enzymes, Immobilized / metabolism*
  • Mathematics
  • Models, Theoretical

Substances

  • Enzymes, Immobilized