The Thermodynamic Driving Force for Kinetics in General and Enzyme Kinetics in Particular

The thermodynamic driving force of a reaction is usually taken as the chemical potential difference between products and reactants. The forward and backward reaction rates are then related to this force. This procedure is of very limited validity, as the resulting expression contains no kinetic factor and gives little information on reaction kinetics. The transformation of the reaction rate as a function of concentration (and temperature) into a function of chemical potential should be more properly performed, as illustrated by a simple example of an enzymatic reaction. The proper thermodynamic driving force is the difference between the exponentials of the totaled chemical potentials of reactants and products.