Solvophilic and solvophobic surfaces and non-Coulombic surface interactions in charge regulating electric double layers.

The properties of electric double layers are governed by the interface between the substrate and the adjacent electrolyte solution. This interface is involved in chemical, Coulombic, and non-Coulombic (e.g., van der Waals or Lennard-Jones) interactions with all components of the fluid phase. We present a detailed study of these interactions using a classical density functional approach. A particular focus is placed on the non-Coulombic interactions and their effect on the surface chemistry and charge regulation. The solution structure near the charged interface is also analyzed and used to offer a thorough interpretation of established concepts such as the Stern and diffuse ionic layers.

Ionic solvation and solvent-solvent interaction effects on the charge and potential distributions in electric double layers.

Electric double layers are complex systems that involve a wide variety of interactions between the different components of the electrolyte solutions and with the charged interface. While the role of all Coulombic types of interactions is clear, that of the non-Coulombic forces is less obvious. The focus in the present study is on the effect of bulk solvation interactions on the properties of the electric double layer. The analysis is based on classical density functional theory. This approach allows us to account for the correlations between all charged (ionic) and uncharged (solvent) species in the solution. The surface charge at the boundary of the electric double layer is derived from the surface chemistry pertinent to the system. The surface is sensitive to the concentration of potential determining ions, which in turn depends on the correlations and activities of all remaining components. The analysis shows that the solvation forces have a profound effect on the charge and potential distributions in an electric double layer. This is true not just for the solvation of the potential determining ions, but for all species. Even varying the solvent-solvent interaction has a significant impact on the charge and potential distributions in the electric double layer.

Electrolyte solution structure and its effect on the properties of electric double layers with surface charge regulation.

The physical origin of charged interfaces involving electrolyte solutions is in the thermodynamic equilibrium between the surface reactive groups and certain dissolved ionic species in the bulk. This equilibrium is very strongly dependent on the precise local density of these species, also known as potential determining ions in the solution. The latter, however, is determined by the overall solution structure, which is dominated by the large number of solvent molecules relative to all solutes. Hence, the solvent contribution to the molecular structure is a crucial factor that determines the properties of electric double layers. Models that explicitly account for the solvent structure are often referred to as "civilized" as opposed to the "primitive" ones that consider the solvent as a structureless continuum. In the present paper, we demonstrate that for a physically correct description of charged interfaces that involve electrolyte solutions (electric double layers), the full solution structure needs to be taken into account in conjunction with the precise surface chemistry governed by the thermodynamic equilibrium. The analysis shows how the surface charge depends on various experimentally relevant parameters, many of which are outside the realm of simple electrostatics. We present results on the effects of solvent molecular dimensions, ionic solvation, surface chemistry, solvophilicity and solvophobicity.

Micellization and interfacial properties of alkyloxyethylene sulfate surfactants in the presence of multivalent counterions.

Alkyloxyethylene sulfates are a special class of surfactants that are unusually stable in the presence of multivalent counterions and are not as prone to precipitation as anionic surfactants without intermediate ethoxy groups in the molecule. However, formation of micelles, their structure, and the properties of monolayers of these surfactants exhibit very interesting and sometimes unexpected properties depending on the nature of the ions dissolved in the solution. This paper presents a brief overview of our recent efforts to reveal the nature of these properties, including some new results. We show that the strong binding of multivalent (and particularly trivalent counterions) triggers a sphere-to-cylinder shape transition of the micelles and facilitates their further growth, even at very low ionic strength. The properties of surfactant monolayers are coupled to those of the micelles in the bulk and are governed also by multivalent counterion binding. The effect of multivalent counterions on the aggregation and structure formation in anionic surfactant solutions has both fundamental and practical importance.

Molecular-level thermodynamic and kinetic parameters for the self-assembly of apoferritin molecules into crystals.

The self-assembly of apoferritin molecules into crystals is a suitable model for protein crystallization and aggregation; these processes underlie several biological and biomedical phenomena, as well as for protein and virus self-assembly. We use the atomic force microscope in situ, during the crystallization of apoferritin to visualize and quantify at the molecular level the processes responsible for crystal growth. To evaluate the governing thermodynamic parameters, we image the configuration of the incorporation sites, "kinks", on the surface of a growing crystal. We show that the kinks are due to thermal fluctuations of the molecules at the crystal-solution interface. This allows evaluation of the free energy of the intermolecular bond phi=3.0 k(B)T=7.3 kJ/mol. The crystallization free energy, extracted from the protein solubility, is -42 kJ/mol. Published determinations of the second virial coefficient and the protein solubility between 0 and 40 degrees C revealed that the enthalpy of crystallization is close to zero. Analyses based on these three values suggest that the main component in the crystallization driving force is the entropy gain of the water molecules bound to the protein molecules in solution and released upon crystallization. Furthermore, monitoring the incorporation of individual molecules in to the kinks, we determine the characteristic frequency of attachment of individual molecules at one set of conditions. This allows a correlation between the mesoscopic kinetic coefficient for growth and the molecular-level thermodynamic and kinetic parameters determined here. We found that step growth velocity, scaled by the molecular size, equals the product of the kink density and attachment frequency, i.e. the latter pair are the molecular-level parameters for self-assembly of the molecules into crystals.

Evidence for non-DLVO hydration interactions in solutions of the protein apoferritin.

We have studied molecular interactions in solutions of the protein apoferritin by static and dynamic light scattering. When plotted against the electrolyte concentration, the second osmotic virial coefficient exhibits a minimum. The ascending branch of this dependence is a manifestation of a surprisingly strong repulsion between the molecules at electrolyte concentrations about and above 0.2M, where electrostatic interactions are suppressed. We argue that the repulsion is due to the water structuring, enhanced by the accumulation of hydrophilic counterions around the apoferritin molecules, giving rise to so-called hydration forces.

Interactions and aggregation of apoferritin molecules in solution: effects of added electrolytes.

We have studied the structure of the protein species and the protein-protein interactions in solutions containing two apoferritin molecular forms, monomers and dimers, in the presence of Na(+) and Cd(2+) ions. We used chromatographic, and static and dynamic light scattering techniques, and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Size-exclusion chromatography was used to isolate these two protein fractions. The sizes and shapes of the monomers and dimers were determined by dynamic light scattering and AFM. Although the monomer is an apparent sphere with a diameter corresponding to previous x-ray crystallography determinations, the dimer shape corresponds to two, bound monomer spheres. Static light scattering was applied to characterize the interactions between solute molecules of monomers and dimers in terms of the second osmotic virial coefficients. The results for the monomers indicate that Na(+) ions cause strong intermolecular repulsion even at concentrations higher than 0.15 M, contrary to the predictions of the commonly applied Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek theory. We argue that the reason for such behavior is hydration force due to the formation of a water shell around the protein molecules with the help of the sodium ions. The addition of even small amounts of Cd(2+) changes the repulsive interactions to attractive but does not lead to oligomer formation, at least at the protein concentrations used. Thus, the two ions provide examples of strong specificity of their interactions with the protein molecules. In solutions of the apoferritin dimer, the molecules attract even in the presence of Na(+) only, indicating a change in the surface of the apoferritin molecule. In view of the strong repulsion between the monomers, this indicates that the dimers and higher oligomers form only after partial denaturation of some of the apoferritin monomers. These observations suggest that aggregation and self-assembly of protein molecules or molecular subunits may be driven by forces other than those responsible for crystallization and other phase transitions in the protein solution.