Open AccessThe oxygen-dissociation curve of blood, and its thermodynamical basis
Author(s) -
W. E. Brown,
A. V. Hill
Publication year - 1923
Publication title -
proceedings of the royal society of london. series b, containing papers of a biological character
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2053-9185
pISSN - 0950-1193
DOI - 10.1098/rspb.1923.0006
Subject(s) - thermodynamics , chemistry , dissociation (chemistry) , oxygen , volume (thermodynamics) , oxygen pressure , saturation (graph theory) , partial pressure , physics , mathematics , organic chemistry , combinatorics
It was shown by Barcroft and Roberts (7) that the volumey of oxygen taken up in reversible combination, at partial pressurex , by carefully dialysed hæmoglobin solution, is given by the equationy /a = Kx /(1 + Kx ), (I) wherea is the volume taken up at a high pressure, and K is a constant. It is usual to takea as unity, and to speak ofy as the “ degree of saturation.” This equation can be deduced thermodynamically for the reversible chemical reaction Hb + O2 ⇄ Hbo2 (II) if we suppose the the reacting bodies Hb and Hbo2 to obey the ordinary laws of osmotic pressure.