Monte Carlo model of competitive adsorption between interacting macromolecules and surfactants

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Abstract
A Monte Carlo model is introduced to simulate competitive adsorption at a plane interface from mixed solutions of macromolecules and surfactants. In a two-dimensional simulation cell bounded by parallel walls, macromolecules and surfactants are modelled as large and small particles with hard-core repulsive interactions. Surfactants bind to macromolecules and to the plane interface via a short-range orientationally dependent attractive interaction. Adsorption results are presented for systems with various strengths of binary interaction of the types macromolecule-surface, surfactant-surface and surfactant-macromolecule. The model exhibits a strong dependence of the surfactant-macromolecule binding energy on the extent of displacement of macromolecules from the interface by surfactant. The relationship of the model to experimental studies of binding and adsorption in globular protein + surfactant systems is discussed.