Hydrolysis
Hydrolysis is a chemical process in which a bond is cleaved by the addition of a water molecule (H2O). Hyrdolysis reactions break large polymers down into smaller molecules e.g. hydrolysis of a peptide bond. One fragment of the polymer gains a hydrogen ion (H+) from the water molecule, whilst the other fragment gains a hydroxyl group (OH-) from the water molecule [1][2].