Abstract Wang-Landau sampling has been applied to investigate the thermodynamics and structural properties of a lattice hydrophobic-polar heteropolymer (the HP protein model) interacting with an attractive substrate. For simplicity, we consider a short HP sequence consisting of only 36 monomers interacting with a substrate which attracts all monomers in the sequence. The conformational “phase t...

Using a ligand bearing a bulky hydrophobic group, a "shish kabob" of nanocages, has been assembled through either a one-fell-swoop or a step-by-step procedure by varying the dielectric constant of the assembly mixture. A hydrophobic solvent breaks down the chain to discrete nanocages, while a hydrophilic solvent reverses the procedure. Although the shish kabob of nanocages has exactly the same ...

The accumulation of polyelectrolytes at the interface between water and nonpolar fluids is an important process in both environmental and biological systems. For instance, polyelectrolytes such as humic acids are highly charged molecules that play a role in the remediation of water contaminated by oil, and the adsorption of other polyelectrolytes such as proteins and DNA to cellular surfaces is...

Hydrophilic coatings were produced on flat hydrophobic substrates featuring n-octadecyltrichlorosilane (ODTS) and synthetic polypropylene (PP) nonwoven surfaces through the adsorption of denatured proteins. Specifically, physisorption from aqueous solutions of α-lactalbumin, lysozyme, fibrinogen, and two soy globulin proteins (glycinin and β-conglycinin) after chemical (urea) and thermal denatu...

We have examined water desorption from Pt(111) terraces of varying width and its dependence on precoverage by deuterium (D) with temperature programmed desorption studies. We observe distinct water desorption from (100) steps and (111) terraces, with steps providing adsorption sites with a higher binding energy than terraces. Preadsorption of D at the steps causes annihilation of water stabiliz...

Hydrophobic and other non-ionic factors provide many new parameters for the separation of proteins by differential adsorption in addition to the mere difference in charge employed in ion-exchange chromatography. Their application also greatly broadens the range of conditions under which adsorptive protein immobilization, e.g., for the preparation of enzymereactors, is possible.

The structure of the adsorbing layers of native and denatured proteins (fibrinogen, gamma-immunoglobulin, albumin, and lysozyme) was studied on hydrophilic TiO(2) and hydrophobic Teflon-AF surfaces using the quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation and optical waveguide lightmode spectroscopy techniques. The density and the refractive index of the adsorbing protein layers could be determine...

Phenol-formaldehyde/silica hybrid gel with hydrophobic character, high porosity, and thesmall pore size mean was prepared via sol-gel polymerization under solvent saturated vaporatmosphere and was dried by ambient drying method. The silica sols were prepared based onTetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and Methyltrimethoxysilane (MTES) as hydrophilic and hydrophobicprecursors, respectively. Phenol-formalde...

This study investigates the structures of layers of amphiphilic diblock copolymers of poly(t-butyl styrene)-poly(styrene sulfonate) (PtBS-PSS) adsorbed on both the bare mica surface (hydrophilic) and an octadecyltriethoxysilane (OTE)-modified mica surface (hydrophobic). When the surface is rendered hydrophobic, the nonsoluble block exhibits stronger interaction with the surface and higher adsor...

We show that hydrophilic ions present in a confined, near-critical aqueous mixture can lead to an attraction between like charge surfaces with opposing preferential adsorption of the two species of the mixture, even though the corresponding Casimir potential in uncharged systems is repulsive. This prediction agrees with a recent experiment [Nellen et al., Soft Matter, 2011, 7, 5360]. We also sh...