Intact carbonic acid is a viable protonating agent for biological bases [Chemistry]

Carbonic acid H2CO3 (CA) is a key constituent of the universal CA/bicarbonate/CO2 buffer maintaining the pH of both blood and the oceans. Here we demonstrate the ability of intact CA to quantitatively protonate bases with biologically-relevant pKas and argue that CA has a previously unappreciated function as a major source...

Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - October 14, 2019 Category: Science Authors: Daniel Aminov, Dina Pines, Philip M. Kiefer, Snehasis Daschakraborty, James T. Hynes, Ehud Pines Tags: Physical Sciences Source Type: research