The change of activation energy in microchannel laminar flow as demonstrated by kinetic analysis of the DNA duplex-coil equilibrium

This paper presents the capability of changing the activation energy of chemical reactions using microchannel laminar flow. Kinetic parameters of the duplex-coil equilibrium of DNA oligomers were studied by measuring the hysteresis between denaturation-renaturation curves using an in-house temperature-controllable microchannel-type flow cell. For this study, DNA oligomers were used because they allow physicochemical analysis and theoretical discussion. Kinetic parameters of the duplex-coil equilibrium of DNA oligomers were obtained by measuring the denaturation-renaturation hysteresis curves. Both cooling and heating curves were shifted to the high-temperature side at higher flow rates. The renaturation reaction was influenced by a slower flow rate. The effect of the slower flow rate was more pronounced for renaturation than denaturation reactions. The magnitude of the activation energies of association decreased as the flow rate increased, but that of the activation energies of the dissociation increased as the flow rate increased. Overall, these results suggest that chemical reactions' change of activation energy depends on the flow rate and the DNA molecular size.