Acid-Base Catalysis
- Acid-base catalysis uses the transfer of a proton to accelerate bond-breaking and bond-formation in
reactions. This kind of catalysis is common in both organic chemistry and in enyzme-catalyzed reactions
- In enzymes, the ionizable groups of amino-acid side chains act as the general acids and bases that
can donate and receive protons
- In the reaction above, a general base, symbolized by B:, accepts a proton to cleave the C-H bond
- A general acid, symbolized by BH+, can also catalyze cleavage by donating a proton to
an acceptor, such as the oxygen of the hydroxyl group shown above