On the reason for α‐Lactalbumin adsorption on a charged surface: a study by monte carlo simulation.

CLAUDIO F. NARAMBUENA

Wageningen

Simposio; 12th International Symposium of Polyelectrolytes; 2018

Wageningen University and Research (WUR)

This work studies the α‐lactalbumin adsorption onto charged substrate using Monte Carlo simulation. The protein is represented by a coarse grained model that has the sufficient components to reproduce the complex behavior of α‐lactalbumin onto substrates electrically charged. In particular the simulation results can reproduce the protein adsorption in conditions where both protein and substrate are negatively charged. The energy and entropy contribution to the free energy of adsorption process are estimated and analyzed. The effects of the charge regulation mechanism and localization of titratables groups in α‐lactalbumin as well as distribution of small ions around the interface are studied in detail. Both the asymmetrical distribution of the charged groups of protein and the counterion distribution play predominant roles in α‐lactalbumin adsorption onto a substrate that has the same electric charge sign.