Teori kemiosmotik adalah teori yang dikembangkan dari hipotesis kemiosmotik yang dicetuskan Peter Dennis Mitchell sebagai hasil dari analisis ilmiah terhadap studi David Keilin pada sistem sitokrom, serta studi Warburg dan Wieland pada respiratory hydrogen carriers, yang kemudian berkembang menjadi konsep rantai pernapasan.
The ATP synthase is a chemiosmotic membrane-located reversible ATPase, having characteristic +H+/P stoichiometry.
Respiratory and photoredox chains are chemiosmotic membrane-located systems, having characteristic +-H+/2e- stoichiometry, and having the same polarity of proton translocation across the membrane for normal forward redox activity as the ATPase has for ATP hydrolysis.
There are proton-linked (or hydroxyl-ion-linked) solute porter systems for osmotic stabilisation and metabolite transport.
Systems 1 to 3 are plugged through a topologically closed insulating membrane, called the coupling membrane, that has a nonaqueous osmotic barrier phase of low permeability to solutes in general and to hydrogen ions and hydroxyl ions in particular. This is the cristae membrane of mitochondria, the thylakoid membrane of chloroplasts, and the plasma membrane of bacteria.