Kinetics of Adsorption and Desorption of Molecules on Surfaces
The intrinsic kinetics of molecular adsorption and desorption have been studied at the air/water interface, but to a lesser extent on solid-liquid interfaces. Recently, we have obtained experimental results on the intrinsic adsorption-desorption kinetics and equilibrium adsorption of triblock copolymers on undecane thiol on gold in water. Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of thiols were used to tailor the energy and charge of the solid-liquid interface. To measure the kinetics of adsorption of triblock copolymers on the hydrophobic and hydrophilic SAMs, we have used surface plasmon spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy both with flow-cell configurations to extract information on the kinetics, equilibrium binding and nanostructure formation of the polymeric admicelles. We also have analysed theoretically previously ignored effects involved in the adsorption and desorption on surfaces of hydrogels. We consider simultaneously diffusion and convection in a flow channel together with diffusion and cooperative binding in a hydrogel.