Section 6.2: Transition States
- As we have already seen in protein folding, the stable arrangements of molecules are associated
with energy minimums (local 'wells' in the multidimensional energy landscape)
- For a molecule (or pair of molecules) to move from one stable arrangement to another, it must cross
intermediate, higher-energy barriers in the energy landscape
- Like protein folding, chemical reactions represent transitions from one energy state to another. The peaks
of the barriers between substrate and product energies are termed the transition states of a reaction
