How do enzymes affect gibbs free energy?

Answer 1

Enzymes decrease the Gibbs free energy of activation, but they have no effect on the free energy of reaction.

Enzymes work by lowering the activation energy (#E_a# or #ΔG^✳#) for a reaction. This increases the reaction rate.

Free energy of reaction =
free energy of product - free energy of substrate

The free energy of the product is the same as it would be without the enzyme. Thus, the enzyme does not affect the free energy of the reaction.

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Answer 2

Serenity Allen

Enzymes lower the activation energy required for a chemical reaction to occur, thereby speeding up the reaction rate. This decrease in activation energy does not alter the overall Gibbs free energy change of the reaction. Instead, enzymes stabilize the transition state, making it easier for reactant molecules to reach this state and proceed to form products. As a result, enzymes do not affect the Gibbs free energy of the reaction; they only facilitate the conversion of reactants to products by providing an alternative reaction pathway with a lower activation energy.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.