Successive interaction of pairs of soluble organics with nanosilica in aqueous media

Successive interaction of different pairs of water-soluble polymers (poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP), poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)), proteins (bovine serum albumin (BSA), ovalbumin, gelatin, and ossein), and smaller organics such as lecithin (1-stearoyl-2-oleoyl phosphatidylcholine, SOPC) and Aethonium (1,2-ethylene-bis( N-dimethyl carbodecyl oxymethyl) ammonium dichloride) with nanosilicas A-300 ( S BET = 232 and 297 m 2 g −1) and A-50 ( S BET = 52 m 2 g −1 ) was studied using dynamic light scattering, adsorption, and infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy methods. Time-dependent rearrangement of particle size distributions (PSDs) depicts appearance of both smaller and larger aggregates for silica/PEG(I—first adsorbate)/BSA(II—second adsorbate) and silica/PVP(I)/BSA(II) (i.e., BSA adsorbs onto PEG/silica or PVP/silica) than that for silica/organic compound I. However, in the cases of PVA(I)–BSA(II) and PVA(I)–SOPC(II) a similar effect is not observed because only increased aggregation occurs. The successive equilibrium adsorption of similar pairs shows a diminution of the adsorption of the second compound (gelatin, ovalbumin) with increasing amount of the first adsorbed polymer (PEG or PVP).