1. The oxidation of benzyl alcohols by liver alcohol dehydrogenase under conditions [S], $-[El, is a biphasic process with exponential rise to a steady state. The rate constants for the transient phase were determined by a curve-fitting procedure.2. A large isotope effect was obtained for p-methoxybenzyl alcohol, indicating that hydrogen transfer is rate-determining for the transient phase. Rate constants for the hydrogen transfer step, k3, were obtained for the various alcohols and correlated with the Hammett o constant by plotting log k3 against o. The slope of this line (e = -0.76) is consistent with rate-limiting hydride transfer; a mechanism is proposed to account for the low magnitude of e.
3.The pre-steady-state rate constants, kb, for all benzyl alcohols (c 20 s-') are lower than that for ethanol. 2-Methylpropan-1-01 and cyclohexylmethanol have pre-steady-state rate constants of about 150 s-', indicating that the lower kh values for benzyl alcohols are due to the electronwithdrawing effect of the benzene ring, rather than to steric effects.Steady-state and transient kinetic studies on liver alcohol dehydrogenase have established that the reaction proceeds by an ordered mechanism with coenzyme binding first, and coenzyme dissocation as the rate-determining step at saturating concentrations [I -41. The existence of ternary complexes in the reaction mechanism was indicated by product inhibition studies [4,5]. Subsequently Shore and Gutfreund [6] studied the pre-steady-state formation of NADH during the oxidation of ethanol by alcohol dehydrogenase in order to measure the rate of interconversion of the ternary complexes. They found a substantial kinetic isotope effect on the rate constant for initial formation of enzyme-bound NADH, indicating that the hydrogen transfer step was ratelimiting for the transient phase [6].Substrate structure has been found to have a marked effect on the rate of the hydrogen transfer step [7]. A pre-steady-state burst of bound NADH was observed [7] during the oxidation of two primary alcohols, ethanol and I-propanol ; however no burst was observed for methanol or the secondary alcohol, 2-propanol, because for these alcohols the hydrogen transfer step was slower than NADH dissociation and hence rate-determining for the steady-state phase.~.