Organocatalysts and Enzymes: Clarifications

Let's make this clear in the first line of the post: ORGANOCATALYSTS ARE NOT ENZYMES. From our previous posts. it seems their may be a confusion between the two. Yes, both have similar functions--they are catalysts. And both have an "organic flavor" to them. In fact, organocatalysts work like enzymes, but still, they themselves should not be confused with them. For example, in our last post we threw out the word chiral--without clarifying what this means. Chiral means that a structure whose mirror image is not superimposable. The following image shows this:

If you notice, when the carbon atom is attached to different groups, it is chiral, since the compound's mirror image cannot be superimposed. However, the methane is achiral, since it is connected to hydrogens in all bonds.

So we said that chirality affected function--sounds like what an enzyme does. An enzyme depends on structure as well. However, once again, enzymes are not organocatalyst. Here is a table that shows the differences between enzymes and catalysts (Note: ignore the fact that catalysts are inorganic, since organocatalysts are kind of organic). Nevertheless, enzymes have much faster reaction rates, typically very specific in their funtion, and can only work in certain conditions. Organocatalysts very rarely work in as specific conditions as enzymes. So, in conclusion, we may compare enzymes and organocatalysts. However, these are not one in the same, so sorry for any confusion.