Chapter One 1. Thermodynamics of Energy Transduction in Biological Membranes

1-1. Introduction Thermodynamics is a classical area of physics and chemistry for which there exists a large number of major treatises that form the background for this chapter. These include excellent treatises that emphasize the application of thermodynamics to problems in biochemistry and biophysics (Bloomfield, Biophysics Textbook On-Line ; Eisenberg and Crothers, 1979; Tinoco et al., 1978). Other sources are (Hill, 1966; Mahan, 1964; Chandrasekhar, 1957). The present treatment specifically emphasizes the application of thermodynamics to bioenergetics, or energy transduction in biological membranes. This energy transduction involves (i) the transduction of light and redox energy to "free energy" stored in a trans-membrane ionic electrochemical potential (∆µ ~ ), and (ii) the use of this energy to synthesize ATP and to drive active transport across