Thermodynamics, Kinetics and Rheology of Interfacial Layers

2. Adsorption Kinetics of Surfactants, Proteins and their Mixtures

Experimental technique has been developed and modified such that the adsorption kinetics can be studied in a wide time interval

  • maximum bubble pressure method (0.0001 s to 100 s)
  • drop volume method (0.5 s to 600 s)
  • pendent drop technique (1 s to 100000 s)
  • ellipsometry (10 s to 10000s).


Theoretical models developed recently allow to take into consideration new features obtained from the equilibrium adsorption state: orientational changes, interfacial aggregation, phase transitions. The combination of dynamic surface tensions with ellipsometry creates a new situation for a quantitative understanding of adsorption mechanisms in particular for proteins and mixed protein-surfactant systems. Moreover, the adsorption dynamics data together with the thermodynamic behaviour of the respective adsorption layers must complement with the parameters of dilational rheology.

Main targets of research on this topic are

  • performance of new experiments for mixed surfactant systems
  • performance of new experiments for mixed surfactant protein systems
  • development of quantitative models for mixed surfactant systems
  • development of new protein adsorption kinetics models
  • models for adsorption of nano-particles at liquid interfaces


This work is performed in close collaboration with the groups of Valentin B. Fainerman from Donetsk, Vladimir Kovalchuk and Eugene Aksenenko from Kiev, Martin Leser from Lausanne, Libero Liggieri from Genoa and Giuseppe Loglio from Florence.

Link to useful software tools for the analysis and prediction of the behaviour of adsorbed monolayers.

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