Model Studies of the Kinetics of Ester Hydrolysis under Stretching Force

Experiments and computations are reported of how stretching a polymer containing an ester moiety affects the kinetics of its basic hydrolysis (see picture). DFT computations of complete conformational ensembles of three homologous esters suggest that a stretching force stabilizes the tetrahedral intermediate and the second transition state (TS) but has no effect on the relative energy of the first TS.