Effects of charge double layer and colloidal aggregation on the isotropic-nematic transition of protein fibers in water
- Mezzenga, Raffaele ETH Zurich, Food & Soft Materials Science, Institute of Food, Nutrition & Health, Zürich, Switzerland
- Jung, Jin-Mi Department of Physics and Fribourg Center for Nanomaterials, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
- Adamcik, Jozef ETH Zurich, Food & Soft Materials Science, Institute of Food, Nutrition & Health, Zürich, Switzerland
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28.05.2010
Published in:
- Langmuir. - 2010, vol. 26, no. 13, p. 10401–10405
English
We investigate the effects of variable linear charge density and Debye length on the mesoscopic properties of β-lactoglobulin fibers in water, by changing the pH and ionic strength, respectively. We determine the isotropic−nematic (I−N) transition by cross-polarized microscopy and quantify by atomic force microscopy the increasing tendency of the fibers to aggregate upon raising ionic strength. We then compare experimental I−N transitions with theoretical expected values based on Onsager theory. Unlike previous reports on lyotropic liquid crystalline behavior of protein fibers, we show that, if double layer effects and aggregation of fibers are correctly included directly in the second virial coefficient and excluded volume, Onsager theory accurately predicts the experimental I−N transition versus pH and ionic strength.
- Faculty
- Faculté des sciences et de médecine
- Department
- Département de Physique
- Language
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- English
- Classification
- Chemistry
- License
- License undefined
- Identifiers
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- RERO DOC 20351
- DOI 10.1021/la101636r
- Persistent URL
- https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/301712
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