Adsorption of the polypeptides on a solid surface. III. Behavior of stiff chains in a pore

✍ Scribed by E. B. Zhulina; A. A. Gorbunov; T. M. Birshtein; A. M. Skvortsov

• Book ID: 102761131
• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1982
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 661 KB
• Volume: 21
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0006-3525
• DOI: 10.1002/bip.360210603

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

A strict analytical theory has been developed describing the behavior of a model lattice polymer chain of arbitrary stiffness in a slitlike pore at polymer–adsorbent interaction energies –ε. The thermodynamic characteristics of the system were calculated. It was shown that the transition of the macromolecule from the solution volume inside a pore occurs by the first‐order phase transition with evolution of latent heat of adsorption. The transition point –ε = –ε~c~ is determined by the chain stiffness and is independent of the pore width D. It is shown that in the precritical range, –ε < –ε~c~, the free energy Δ__F__ of the macromolecules in the pores is adequately described by the universal dependence Δ__F__ = Δ__F__(D*/A), where D* is some effective pore width depending on the value of –ε, and A is the length of the Kuhn segment. At high attraction energies, –ε ≫ –ε~c~, the macromolecules are bonded to the pore walls by a great number of units and their free energy depends only on –ε and the chain stiffness, Δ__F__ = Δ__F__(A, ε). Close to the critical energy –ε ≃ –ε~c~ (transition range), Δ__F__ is determined by both the stiffness of the macromolecule and the pore width D: Δ__F__ ∼ A^2^D^−1^ for fairly high values of A and D. The possibilities of using porous media as protein stabilizers are discussed, and the value of the stabilizing effect depending on the chain stiffness is estimated.