The basis for tight binding of bee venom phospholipase A2 (bvPLA2) to anionic versus zwitterionic phospholipid interfaces is explored by charge reversal mutagenesis of basic residues (lysines/arginines to glutamates) on the putative membrane binding surface. Single-site mutants and, surprisingly, multisite mutants (2-5 of the 6 basic residues mutated) are fully functional on anionic vesicles. M...

2014 We describe a method for the measurement of interfacial tensions in the millidyne/cm range by measuring the diffuse part of the total internally reflected light produced when the interfaces are illuminated close to the critical angle. This method has been used to measure the optimal interfacial tension in toluene-brine microemulsions in simultaneous equilibrium with the oil and aqueous pha...

Self-motion of physical-chemical systems is a promising avenue for studying and developing mechanical functions with inanimate systems. In this paper, we investigate spontaneous motion of collections of solid macroscopic benzoquinone (BQ) disks at the air-water interface without intervention of chemical reactions. The BQ particles slowly dissolve and create heterogeneous interfacial tension fie...

We investigated the roles of three proteins associated with the formation of otoconia including fetuin A, osteopontin (OPN), and otoconin 90 (OC90). In situ atomic force microscopy (AFM) studies of the effects of these proteins on the growth of atomic steps on calcite surfaces were performed to obtain insight into their effects on the growth kinetics. We also used scanning electron microscopy t...

DOI: 10.1002/admi.201400547 the interaction (characterized by the range of adhesion z 0 ). The intrinsic work of adhesion W adh is the energy per unit area required to separate two planar surfaces from equilibrium contact to infi nite separation. In terms of surface energy (γ i of surface i ) and interfacial energy (γ ij between surfaces i and j ), the work of adhesion is calculated as follows:

Turbine oil plays an important role in supporting optimal steam turbine performance. Some additives in turbine oil can cause emulsification when the oil is contaminated by water, so demulsibility is a very important property of the steam turbine oil. In order to improve the demulsibility of steam turbine oil, two kinds of polyether-silicone comb copolymers are synthesized and used as steam turb...

We investigated the structure and dynamics of water in contact with a monolayer of artificial lung surfactant (LS), composed of four types of lipids and one protein. The interfacial water is investigated with frequency-domain and time-domain surface sum-frequency generation spectroscopy, in which the vibrational relaxation of specifically interfacial water molecules can be followed. We compare ...

We present a unified model for complete crystal-growth inhibition based on the thermodynamics of interfaces. The premise for our model is that the adsorption of inhibitor leads to a reduction in interfacial tension or edge energy for the crystal surface or step, respectively. In our formulation, the work to add a layer or grow a step increases due to the difference in interfacial tensions or ed...