On the Polycondensation of Amino Acid Adenylates on Montmorillonites

Abstract

Supplementing earlier findings by A. Katchalsky et al., and current work of M. Paecht-Horowitz, a number of studies on the mechanisms of adsorption underlying the catalysis mechanism show, at least, 3 types of adsorption, i.e. two ion exchange mechanisms on clay faces and edges, and a general, possibly ion- pair mediated, polar adsorption. X-ray data on dry clay-peptide sandwiches show clearly adsorption in well defined layers, while analysis of rates of polymerization, of blocking experiments of clay agglomeration, and of the effects of polypeptide preadsorption show that the clay faces and edges are involved in the enhancement of the polycondensation which also requires that the clay platelet stacks can expand by interlayer adsorption during the reaction.