/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.7103839]

In a chemistry class I'm taking, one handout regarding denaturation of proteins gave a list of denaturants and how they worked.

Strong acids are described as interfering with hydrogen bonds. Why is this? it seems reasonable to me to think that hydronium would be able to form more hydrogen bonds than water, but I can't find anything online or in my course materials that talks about strong acids acting as solvents. The wikipedia article on polar protic solvents only lists weak acids. Is this because in strong acids the negative ion saturates the solution, thus not allowing the hydronium to act as a solvent? Am I just talking gibberish right now or fundamentally misunderstanding something, because I can find literally nothing about this anywhere (specifically, the action of hydronium in strong acid solutions as a polar solvent).

[Anonymous No.7103876]

>>7103839
The H-bonding interactions being disrupted are intramolecular - they are between different functional groups in the protein.

Add strong acid, and it protonates weakly basic sites in the protein that would otherwise act as internal H-bond acceptors.

[Anonymous No.7103900]

>>7103876

How is that different from the action of a polar solvent, where some functional group with hydrogen is what disrupts the polar bond rather than the hydrogen in an acidic solution? Is that it?

[Anonymous No.7105204]

>>7103900
Strong acids fuck up ionic bonds, you nigger.

[Anonymous No.7105220]

>>7103900
The protein in a weak acid would experience some protonation on some sites some of the time. So there would be misfolding and repairing going on.

In a strong acid, you would have many more protonated sites. Eventually, the dynamic "self-healing" of the tertiary structure would break down.

[Anonymous No.7106818]

>>7103839
>Strong acids are described as interfering with hydrogen bonds. Why is this?

Charge differentials on the covalant or ionic bonds.

Research some electricity, path of least resistance and whatnot.

[Anonymous No.7107254]

>>7106818
>research some electricity
Oh man.. watch out chemists coming through

[Anonymous No.7107269]

>>7103839
Go see if you can buy a bottle of hydronium, you jabroni. It's just reactive water. If you can't understand that it just protonates shit then something is wrong with you.