Thermodynamic Circuits: Modeling chemical reaction networks with nonequilibrium conductance matrices

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to derive the nonequilibrium conductance matrix for open stationary chemical reaction networks, enabling analysis of their thermodynamic properties in nonequilibrium conditions.

Contribution

It presents a novel theoretical framework for modeling chemical reaction networks as thermodynamic circuits using conductance matrices.

Findings

The conductance matrix of a CRN can be computed from its modules.

Two different methods for calculating conductance matrices yield consistent results.

The approach bridges chemical kinetics and thermodynamic circuit theory.

Abstract

We derive the nonequilibrium conductance matrix for open stationary Chemical Reaction Networks (CRNs) described by a deterministic mass action kinetic equation. As an illustration, we determine the nonequilibrium conductance matrix of a CRN made of two pseudo-linear sub-networks, called chemical modules, in two different ways: First by computing the nonequilibrium conductances of the modules that are then serially connected. Second by computing the nonequilibrium conductance of the CRN directly. The two approaches coincide, as expected from our theory of thermodynamic circuits.