Turnover number

Turnover number has two different meanings:

In enzymology, turnover number (also termed k_cat) is defined as the maximum number of chemical conversions of substrate molecules per second that a single catalytic site will execute for a given enzyme concentration . It can be calculated from the maximum reaction rate and catalyst site concentration as follows:

For example, carbonic anhydrase has a turnover number of 400,000 to 600,000 s⁻¹, which means that each carbonic anhydrase molecule can produce up to 600,000 molecules of product (bicarbonate ions) per second.

In other chemical fields, such as organometallic catalysis, turnover number (abbreviated TON) has a different meaning: the number of moles of substrate that a mole of catalyst can convert before becoming inactivated. An ideal catalyst would have an infinite turnover number in this sense, because it wouldn't ever be consumed, but in actual practice one often sees turnover numbers which go from 100 up to 40 million for catalase. The term turnover frequency (abbreviated TOF) is used to refer to the turnover per unit time, as in enzymology. For most relevant industrial applications, the turnover frequency is in the range of 10⁻² - 10² s⁻¹ (enzymes 10³ - 10⁷ s⁻¹).^[1] Turnover number of catalase is maximum i.e. 4 X 10⁷ s⁻¹.