生物馬達能量轉換效率與介觀熱力學

Abstract

微觀世界裡的生物馬達有高的做功效率，其條件包括軌域重組的化學過程效率高，如ATP水解，以及蛋白質在水中形變的物理過程效率高。本研究主要探討後者的高效率原因，是進化論天擇出的完美蛋白質構造，還是所有微觀系統都有的基本物理現象?假如是後者，水中物理過程高效率應存在於任何微小系統。藉由電腦模擬，我們觀察一個微觀汽缸中的理想氣體膨脹來探討一個小系統在受不同阻力下的做功效率，量化了介於可逆過程與自由膨脹過程之間一般過程的做功效率，展示一些出現在介觀熱力學領域的問題，並探討做不同宏觀公式修正的結果。

This thesis is devoted to understanding the high efficiency of energy transduction inbiological motors. This process can be roughly divided into a chemical process including orbital reconstructions, like ATP hydrolysis, and a physical process of protein conformational change. In this work, we focus on the latter and question about whether the efficient physical process is due to biological evolution or basic physical law. If the latter is true, high efficiency should occur for any microscopic systems. To test this question, we write computer code to simulate ideal gas expansion in a microscopic tank exposed to different forces. We quantify the working efficiencies between reversible processes and free expansions, demonstrate some peculiar phenomenaemerging in mesoscopic thermodynamics, and the results arisingfrom modified macroscopic formula.