Journal article
Solid nuclei and liquid droplets: A parallel treatment for 3 phase systems
Protein science, v 27(7), pp 1286-1294
13 Jun 2018
PMID: 29633411
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
For solid phase self assembly into crystals or large diameter polymers, the presence of a liquid‐liquid demixing transition has been known to have an accelerating effect on the nucleation process. We present a novel approach to the description of accelerated nucleation in which the formation of solid phase aggregates and liquid‐like aggregates compete as parallel pathways to formation of dense phases. The central idea is that the small aggregates that would ultimately form the liquid phase are sufficiently labile to sample the configurations that would form the solid, so that the growing cluster begins as a liquid, and switches into growth as a solid when the aggregates have equal free energies. This can accelerate the reaction even when the liquid‐demixed state is thermodynamically unfavorable. The rate‐limiting barrier is therefore the energy at which there is a transition between liquid and solid, and the effective nucleus size is then concentration independent, even though for both nucleated demixing and nucleated crystallization, the nucleus size does depend on concentration. These ideas can be expressed in a chemical potential formalism that has been successfully used in nucleation of sickle hemoglobin, but not to our knowledge previously employed in describing LLD processes. The method is illustrated by considering existing data on Lysozyme.
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Details
- Title
- Solid nuclei and liquid droplets: A parallel treatment for 3 phase systems
- Creators
- Frank A. Ferrone - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- Protein science, v 27(7), pp 1286-1294
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons Inc
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Physics
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000437696600013
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85049577172
- Other Identifier
- 991019168843504721
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- Web of Science research areas
- Biochemistry & Molecular Biology