hydrolysis
Sign in to savethumb|upright=1.7|Generic hydrolysis reaction. (The 2-way yield symbol indicates a chemical equilibrium in which hydrolysis and condensation are reversible.) Hydrolysis (; ) is any chemical reaction in which a molecule of water breaks one or more chemical bonds. The term is used broadly for substitution and elimination reactions in which water is the nucleophile.
AI overview
Hydrolysis is a chemical reaction where a water molecule breaks one or more chemical bonds in another substance, often used to describe reactions where water acts as the attacking agent in substitution and elimination reactions. It matters because it's a fundamental process in chemistry—reversible with the opposite reaction (condensation)—that helps break down complex molecules into simpler ones.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Article
14 sectionsContents
- Types
- Esters and amides
- ATP
- Polysaccharides{{Anchor|saccharification}}
- DNA
- Metal aqua ions
- Mechanism strategies
- Catalysis
- Acid hydrolysis
- Alkaline hydrolysis
- Supercritical hydrolysis
- See also
- References
- Further reading
thumb|upright=1.7|Generic hydrolysis reaction. (The 2-way yield symbol indicates a chemical equilibrium in which hydrolysis and condensation are reversible.) Hydrolysis (; ) is any chemical reaction in which a molecule of water breaks one or more chemical bonds. The term is used broadly for substitution and elimination reactions in which water is the nucleophile.
Biological hydrolysis is the cleavage of biomolecules where a water molecule is consumed to effect the separation of a larger molecule into component parts. When a carbohydrate is broken into its component sugar molecules by hydrolysis (e.g., sucrose being broken down into glucose and fructose), this is recognized as saccharification.