We describe as ‘reversible’ a bidirectional catalyst that allows a reaction to proceed at a significant rate in response to even a small departure from equilibrium, resulting in fast and energy-efficient chemical transformation. Examining the relation between reaction rate and thermodynamic driving force is the basis of electrochemical investigations of redox reactions, which can be catalysed by metallic surfaces and biological or synthetic molecular catalysts. This relation has also been discussed in the context of biological energy transduction, regarding the function of biological molecular machines that harness chemical reactions to do mechanical work. This Perspective describes mean-field kinetic modelling of these three types of systems — surface catalysts, molecular catalysts of redox reactions and molecular machines — with the goal of unifying concepts in these different fields. We emphasize that reversibility should be distinguished from other figures of merit, such as rate or directionality, before its design principles can be identified and used to engineer synthetic catalysts.

我们将双向催化剂描述为“可逆”，它允许反应以显着的速度进行以响应即使是微小的偏离平衡，从而导致快速和节能的化学转化。检查反应速率和热力学驱动力之间的关系是氧化还原反应电化学研究的基础，可以由金属表面和生物或合成分子催化剂催化。这种关系也在生物能量转导的背景下进行了讨论，涉及利用化学反应进行机械工作的生物分子机器的功能。本观点描述了这三种系统的平均场动力学模型——表面催化剂，氧化还原反应的分子催化剂和分子机器——目标是统一这些不同领域的概念。我们强调，在确定其设计原则并将其用于设计合成催化剂之前，应将可逆性与其他品质因数（例如速率或方向性）区分开来。