What is it about?
Second law of thermodynamics dictates that the free energy of a system will reach its minimum. This phenomenon is seen adsorption process as well where amphiphilic molecules will start reducing the surface free energy of freshly created surface. However, we found that in case of proteins there is a transient increase in surface energy before it starts to decrease.
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Why is it important?
This work sheds a new light on the thermodynamics of adsorption process involving proteins. We have demonstrated that the kinetics of adsorption is not straightforward and it is more non-linear at shorter time scales.
Perspectives
The increase in surface tension during adsorption proteins has been speculated before. In this work we were able to provide not only experimental evidence but also present a thermodynamic model which indicates such behavior is possible.
Vamseekrishna Ulaganathan
University of South Australia
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Evidence of negative surface pressure induced by β-lactoglobulin and β-casein at water/air interface, Food Hydrocolloids, January 2014, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodhyd.2013.03.019.
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