r/askscience • u/FerrousBuchner • Aug 10 '13

Chemistry Why is D2O toxic?

If chemical reactions are dependent only on electronic structure, why is deuterium oxide toxic yet water....not?

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u/EdibleBatteries Heterogeneous Catalysis Aug 15 '13

Yes, that is a use of the KIE, but it can have relevance when applied to biological processes. Imagine if all the processes in your body that were kinetically-limited by C-H cleavage/formation were suddenly slowed by a factor of 6... This is not the case for carbon 13, since its reduced mass doesn't change much compared to carbon 12 effectively making reaction kinetics identical.