Molecular pendulum shuttles protons for rapid hydrogen production
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Original source:phys.org
Key Takeaways
- Metabolic processes depend heavily on fast proton transport.
- Hydrogenase enzymes combine electrons and protons to form hydrogen gas.
- A molecular pendulum structure enables incredible processing speeds of 10,000 protons per second.
Cellular life relies heavily on protons to drive vital metabolic functions. While these positive particles float freely inside cells, specialized biological catalysts must rapidly harvest and channel them to specific reaction sites to sustain their work.
Microbial enzymes known as hydrogenases excel at this task, generating clean hydrogen gas by fusing protons with electrons at astonishing speeds. Research reveals that a unique molecular pendulum mechanism allows these proteins to shuttle thousands of protons every single second.
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