Percus-Yevick theory of adsorption

We study adsorption of hard sphere particles on to a plane surface with a delta function adsorption potential. The calculation takes account of exclusion via the Percus-Yevick approximation. At low and intermediate bulk adsorbate densities, both type II and type III BET adsorption isotherms can be found for the surface excess density and for the monolayer surface density. The surface excess isotherm agrees with an expansion of the exact surface excess isotherm to second order in the density. We mention some biochemical ramifications of the results.     

A density-functional theory of hydrogen adsorption on indium nitride nanotubes

First-principles calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) are used to study the chemisorption properties of one, two, and four hydrogen atoms on the zigzag and armchair single-walled InN nanotubes (InNNTs).The results indicate that the H atom is strongly bounded to the exterior wall of (4, 4) InNNTs compared with the (7, 0) InNNTs, while the chemisorption energies corresponding to the most stable configuration of H₂ dissociation and a single H atom are found to be–3.85 and–3.26 eV, respectively. Furthermore, the effect of the hydrogen storage on the geometries and electronic properties of related InN nanotubes were also discussed. The computed density of states (DOS) indicates that the energy gap of the zigzag and armchair InN nanotubes on hydrogen adsorptions are significantly decreased which can increase the electrical conductance of the tubes. Therefore, InN nanotubes due to the high binding energy can be used for hydrogen storage.     

A density functional theory study of hydrogen adsorption in MOF-5

Ab initio molecular dynamics in the generalized gradient approximation to density functional theory and ground-state relaxations are used to study the interaction between molecular hydrogen and the metal-organic framework with formula unit Zn4O(O2C-C6H4-CO2)3. Five symmetrically unique adsorption sites are identified, and calculations indicate that the sites with the strongest interaction with hydrogen are located near the Zn4O clusters. Twenty total adsorption sites are found around each Zn4O cluster, but after 16 of these are populated, the interaction energy at the remaining four sites falls off significantly. The adsorption of hydrogen on the pore walls creates an attractive potential well for hydrogen in the center of the pore. The effect of the framework on the physical structure and electronic structure of the organic linker is calculated, suggesting ways by which the interaction between the framework and hydrogen could be modified.     

Quantum theory of adsorption of isolated adatoms

Various trends in the development of modern quantum-mechanical theory of absorption of isolated adatoms on the surface of crystals are considered. Particular attention is given to the generalization of Anderson's adsorption model and to the studies concerned with its substantiation with the use of the equations of the Lippman-Schwinger type.It is shown that different equilibrium and nonequilibrium processes arising due to adsorption can be described by means of a finite number of microscopic parameters.The applications of the theory to the thermodynamics of adsorption and its dynamic manifestations in field-emission, modulation spectroscopy and some other processes are discussed.     

General aspects of protein adsorption

The study of protein adsorption on a mechanistic and quantitative basis is still a relatively young science and a general theory encompassing all aspects cannot be given. Till now the possibility of synthesizing surfaces in a controlled way, to elucidate the mechanism of protein adsorption - a possibility existing since the advent of affinity chromatography nearly two decades ago - has only been utilized to a small extent. Since this technique, however, has allowed the derivation of some general principles of protein adsorption and protein adsorption kinetics, which would otherwise not have been amenable for study, these results will be mainly referred to here.     

Ge adsorption on Ag(111): A density-functional theory investigation

First-principles density-functional theory has been used to investigate the adsorptions of Ge on Ag(111) surfaces for a wide range of coverage. Preferred adsorption sites, adsorption energies, surface structures, and the electronic properties are studied. Our results show that adsorption on the surface in fcc- sites is energetically favorable. The adsorption energies decrease as increasing Ge atoms, while the work functions of Ag surface decrease. The contour maps of the difference charge show that there exists covalent bonding in lower coverage systems to some extent for Ge on Ag(111) surface, and the interaction of Ge and Ag atoms becomes weaker with the increase of adsorption degree. The calculated density of states indicates that the adsorption structures have metallic character, while the number of electron transition is small and the interaction is not strong between Ge and Ag atoms.     

The theory of polymer adsorption during polymerization reactions

Exact values are obtained for the grand canonical partition function of model chains absorbed at a surface. On a six-choice simple cubic lattice, chains are generated as function of the activity of chain bonds. The molecular weight distribution of adsorbed chains and of solution chains in equilibrium with them is obtained. It is shown that the average molecular weight of adsorbed chains is higher than that of solution chains. The difference is the more pronounced the flatter the chain is when adsorbed at the surface. When the activity of chain bond; increases the surface coverage increases, more segments occur in loops extending into the solution, and the average molecular weight of solution chains approaches that of adsorbed chains. The segment density in loops as function of distance from the surface is shown to be exponential, in agreement with previous results. If polymer adsorption is high and the concentration in solution is small, the number of segments in tails is amall. The dimensions of the adsorbed polymer chain are smaller than those in solution of the same molecular weight. It is suggested that if polymer adsorption during polycondensation reactions with bond interchanges is measured, the bothersome tirne effects, invariably observed, might be eliminated. In this manner a valid comparison between theoretical and experimental results might become feasible.     

Reduced protein adsorption by osmolytes

Osmolytes are substances that affect osmosis and are used by cells to adapt to environmental stress. Here, we report a neutron reflectivity study on the influence of some osmolytes on protein adsorption at solid-liquid interfaces. Bovine ribonuclease A (RNase) and bovine insulin were used as model proteins adsorbing at a hydrophilic silica and at a hydrophobic polystyrene surface. From the neutron reflectivity data, the adsorbed protein layers were characterized in terms of layer thickness, protein packing density, and adsorbed protein mass in the absence and presence of urea, trehalose, sucrose, and glycerol. All data point to the clear effect of these nonionic cosolvents on the degree of protein adsorption. For example, 1 M sucrose leads to a reduction of the adsorbed amount of RNase by 39% on a silica surface and by 71% on a polystyrene surface. Trehalose was found to exhibit activity similar to that of sucrose. The changes in adsorbed protein mass can be attributed to a decreased packing density of the proteins in the adsorbed layers. Moreover, we investigated insulin adsorption at a hydrophobic surface in the absence and presence of glycerol. The degree of insulin adsorption is decreased by even 80% in the presence of 4 M of glycerol. The results of this study demonstrate that nonionic cosolvents can be used to tune and control nonspecific protein adsorption at aqueous-solid interfaces, which might be relevant for biomedical applications.     

Poisson-Boltzmann theory of the charge-induced adsorption of semi-flexible polyelectrolytes

A model is suggested for the structure of an adsorbed layer of a highly charged semi-flexible polyelectrolyte on a weakly charged surface of opposite charge sign. The adsorbed phase is thin, owing to the effective reversal of the charge sign of the surface upon adsorption, and ordered, owing to the high surface density of polyelectrolyte strands caused by the generally strong binding between polyelectrolyte and surface. The Poisson-Boltzmann equation for the electrostatic interaction between the array of adsorbed polyelectrolytes and the charged surface is solved for a cylindrical geometry, both numerically, using a finite element method, and analytically within the weak curvature limit under the assumption of excess monovalent salt. For small separations, repulsive surface polarization and counterion osmotic pressure effects dominate over the electrostatic attraction and the resulting electrostatic interaction curve shows a minimum at nonzero separations on the Angstrom scale. The equilibrium density of the adsorbed phase is obtained by minimizing the total free energy under the condition of equality of chemical potential and osmotic pressure of the polyelectrolyte in solution and in the adsorbed phase. For a wide range of ionic conditions and charge densities of the charged surface, the interstrand separation as predicted by the Poisson-Boltzmann model and the analytical theory closely agree. For low to moderate charge densities of the adsorbing surface, the interstrand spacing decreases as a function of the charge density of the charged surface. Above about 0.1 M excess monovalent salt, it is only weakly dependent on the ionic strength. At high charge densities of the adsorbing surface, the interstrand spacing increases with increasing ionic strength, in line with the experiments by Fang and Yang [J. Phys. Chem. B 101, 441 (1997)].     

A predictive approach to correlating protein adsorption isotherms on ion-exchange media

The equilibrium adsorption of three small basic proteins was measured on cation exchangers under various solution conditions and was used as the basis for developing a predictive approach for correlating adsorption behavior. A mechanistically based isotherm model is used to model the equilibrium adsorption so as to facilitate isotherm prediction using minimal experimental data. The model explicitly considers the contributions of protein-surface and protein-protein interactions, and decoupling them allows each to be correlated with different experimental measurements. Specifically, protein-surface interactions are related to chromatographic data in the form of the isocratic retention factor (k'), while protein-protein interactions are analyzed on the basis of high-coverage isotherm data on an arbitrary stationary phase. Analysis of experimental data within this framework reveals a high level of consistency. The model is also used to facilitate prediction of adsorption isotherms on other ion-exchange media using isotherms on one adsorbent.     

Density functional theory of adsorption in pillared slit-like pores

We propose a density functional theory to describe adsorption of Lennard-Jones fluid in pillared slit like pores. Specifically, the pillars are built of chains that are bonded by their ends to the opposite pore walls. The approach we propose combines theory of quenched-annealed systems and theory of nonuniform fluids involving chain molecules. We compare the results of theoretical predictions with grand canonical ensemble Monte Carlo simulations and compute theoretical capillary condensation phase diagrams for several model systems.     

Polymer surface reorientation after protein adsorption

Surface side-chain orientation changes of two polymers have been observed upon protein adsorption using sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy. Side-chain-deuterated poly(ethyl methacrylate) and poly(n-butyl methacrylate) were contacted with five protein solutions: albumin, fibrinogen, ubiquitin, cytochrome c, and lysozyme. The CD(3)/CD(2) symmetric stretch ratios of the surface polymer side chains in contact with these different media were compared to each other and to that of the polymer contacting air or phosphate buffered saline. The adsorption of different proteins to the surfaces resulted in polymer side-chain orientations slightly different from each other, with orientations between the air and buffer cases.     

Capillary isoelectric focusing--reproducibility and protein adsorption

Capillary isoelectric focusing (CIEF) is an important tool for the quality assurance of biotechnologically maintained drugs and for proteome analysis. The critical performance parameters of this technique are the precisions of isoelectric point (pI) values and peak areas. Compared to capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE), where precise results can be obtained (e.g., 0.5% relative standard deviation (RSD) for peak areas, n = 60), only few data are available for CIEF experiments. So far, reproducible data of pI values (RSD = 0.5%) have been acquired, but peak areas show inferior results (about 3-15% RSD). Nonstable capillary coatings and protein adsorption have been discussed as possible reasons. Recent work of Righetti et al. [25, 27] has proven that the use of coated capillaries can reduce the adsorption of proteins by 50% but cannot prevent it. In our CIEF experiments irregular and poorly reproducible peak patterns have been observed. In a long-time experiment of 106 repeated runs, an overall RSD of 10% was obtained for peak areas, RSD of 2% only in series of about 10 consecutive replicates. Especially at higher concentrations the reproducibility deteriorates. This seems to be the result of a self-amplifying process, induced by adsorbed protein molecules, leading to further agglomerations. CZE control experiments in linear polyacrylamide (LPA)-coated capillaries proved a strong pH dependency of these effects within a small range. Compared to bare fused-silica surfaces, adsorption effects are reduced but not inhibited. An enhancement of reproducibility in CIEF experiments can be achieved only by controlling the interactions of proteins and capillary walls.     

Preparation of immobilized tannins for protein adsorption

Preparation and adsorption specificity of tannins immobilized by covalent binding on water-insoluble matrices were investigated. Immobilized tannins were prepared by condensing cyanogen bromide activated tannins with aminohexyl derivatives of several kinds of matrices. The most suitable matrix for the immobilization of tannin was alkali-treated cellulose powder. The concentration of sodium hydroxide solution for alkali treatment influenced the adsorption capacity of immobilized tannin for a protein, but temperature and time for alkali treatment did not. Immobilized tannins having spacers of long chain length exhibited high adsorption capacity for a protein. Chinese gallotannin was the most favorable ligand for protein adsorption. The immobilization of tannin on aminohexyl matrices was also possible by using epichlorohydrin instead of cyanogen bromide. The maximum adsorption capacity of the immobilized tannin for a protein was about 50 mg/ml of the absorbent. Immobilized tannin adsorbed proteins specifically but did not absorb low molecular weight compounds.