Summary
Two types of superactivity can be defined. One, is with respect to the activity for a fixed average substrate concentration in the water pool; the pushing of the charged substrate by the likewise charged micellar surface is responsible for the superactivity and its bell-shaped dependence on the hydration ratio. The other, is with respect to the activity in a bulk aqueous solution having a substrate concentration equal to a fixed overall concentration [S−]ov in the entire reverse micellar solution. In this case, the pushing effect, the constraint of a fixed [S−]ov and the partitioning of the substrate in the surfactant layer are responsible for the bell-shaped dependence. Superactivity exists for low substrate partitioning in the surfactant layer, subactivity for high partitioning.
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Ruckenstein, E., Karpe, P. On the meaning of enzymatic superactivity in reverse micelles. Biotechnol Lett 12, 817–820 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01022601
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01022601