Direct force measurements between oppositely charged latex particles in aqueous electrolyte solutions were carried out with a multiparticle colloidal probe technique based on atomic force microscopy. Force profiles between two dissimilarly charged surfaces can be only described when charge regulation effects are taken into account, while constant charge or constant potential boundary conditions are inappropriate. Surface potentials and regulation parameters are determined from force data obtained in symmetric systems with the Poisson-Boltzmann theory and constant regulation approximation. The resulting quantities are used to predict the force profiles in asymmetric systems, and good agreement between theory and experiment is found. These findings show that charge regulation is important to quantify double-layer forces in asymmetric systems.
Interactions between negatively charged latex particles in the presence of cationic linear poly(ethylene imine) (LPEI) were studied with atomic force microscopy (AFM) and electrophoresis. Forces were measured directly with the recently developed multiparticle colloidal probe technique, which permits colloidal particles to attach to the cantilever in aqueous dispersions in situ and ensures a large surface area during experiment. It was observed that the forces vary from repulsive to attractive and back to repulsive with increasing polymer dose. The repulsive forces are due to overlap of the diffuse layers around charged surfaces. The attractive forces are independent of the ionic strength and the molecular mass of the polymer and can be rationalized in terms of classical van der Waals interactions. Additional electrostatic attractive forces due to patch-charge heterogeneities observed in other particle-polyelectrolyte systems are absent here. Their absence indicates that the adsorbed layer of LPEI has a high lateral homogeneity.
The binding between Teicoplanin glycopeptide antibiotic and some dipeptides and amino acids has been studied by nonlinear liquid chromatography. A Teicoplanin-based chiral stationary phase, specifically designed to achieve maximum selectivity and loading by reducing non-specific interactions, has been prepared and packed into a microbore column. The adsorption isotherms of the enantiomers of proline, alanine, and alanine-alanine (Ala-Ala) have been measured through frontal analysis. The experimental binding data have been interpreted in the context of the ordinary homogeneous Michaelis-Menten model and by considering an heterogeneous model that accounts for a broad adsorption energy distribution (AED). AED has been achieved by the analysis of adsorption isotherms. Besides confirming the importance of the terminal D-Ala-D-Ala moiety in the molecular recognition between the dipeptide and the macrocyclic antibiotic Teicoplanin (it was found that Teicoplanin behaves as a molecular filter toward the enantiomers of Ala-Ala), this study shows that a heterogeneous adsorption model is needed for the correct interpretation of binding data.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.