Modification of ATP hydrolysis by Strong Coupling with O-H Stretching Vibration

Polaritonic chemistry has become an important research field, since vibrational strong coupling (VSC) between molecular transitions and photonic structures was discovered to alter the energy landscape of molecules, through the creation of hybrid states in an optical cavity resonant to a molecular absorption band. ATP hydrolysis is an essential reaction in all known forms of life and have fundamental roles in energy conservation, active transport and pH homeostasis. Herein, using a Fabry-Perot (FP) cavity filled with the ATP hydrolysis solution, we measured the ATP hydrolysis efficiency in both strong and weak coupling modes and investigated the VSC effect on the catalytic activity of ATPase at the stretching vibration band of water. We observed an approximately 10-fold increase of the apparent hydrolysis rate when coupling with the water stretching vibration. This work demonstrates the potential of employing VSC to precisely interfere water-based biochemical reactions.