Reversible catalysis

Understanding the relationship between reaction rate and thermodynamic driving force is central to developing efficient catalysts. This Perspective describes this relationship and the conditions that can give rise to reversible catalysis, which is relevant to energy conversions of fuels and motor proteins alike. We describe as 'reversible' a bidirectional catalyst that allows a reaction to proceed at a significant rate in response to even a small departure from equilibrium, resulting in fast and energy-efficient chemical transformation. Examining the relation between reaction rate and thermodynamic driving force is the basis of electrochemical investigations of redox reactions, which can be catalysed by metallic surfaces and biological or synthetic molecular catalysts. This relation has also been discussed in the context of biological energy transduction, regarding the function of biological molecular machines that harness chemical reactions to do mechanical work. This Perspective describes mean-field kinetic modelling of these three types of systems - surface catalysts, molecular catalysts of redox reactions and molecular machines - with the goal of unifying concepts in these different fields. We emphasize that reversibility should be distinguished from other figures of merit, such as rate or directionality, before its design principles can be identified and used to engineer synthetic catalysts.

Automated summary

Understanding the relationship between reaction rate and thermodynamic driving force is crucial for developing efficient catalysts. This Perspective discusses reversible catalysis, which allows reactions to proceed rapidly and efficiently even with slight deviations from equilibrium. The perspective also covers electrochemical investigations of redox reactions, biological energy transduction, and mean-field kinetic modeling of surface catalysts, molecular catalysts, and molecular machines.