The rheometer as a tool to study a section of the Hofmeister Series

For more than a century, the Hofmeister Series has been an open problem in biophysics and colloid science. In this experiment, a standard viscometer has been used to test a section of the Series by comparing the viscosities of simulated egg white solutions after the addition of different salts (KCl,NaCl,MgCl2, CaCl2, LiCl and LiBr). Considering the obtained data, we have that the trend of the LiBr solution is clearly distinct from that of the other solutions, whose salts have Cl− as an anion, and that it is quite complicated to rank the viscosity curves of the salts which have Cl− as an anion. This agrees with what suggested by the theory, which says that the HS is dominated by anions. Moreover, a small section of the Hofmeister Series for anions have been explained using qualitative arguments. As far as the author knows, a similar explanation have never been given before in literature.