CONCENTRATION SCALING OF PROTEIN DEPOSITION KINETICS

Measurement of the phase velocities of guided modes in optical waveguides yields information about the optical parameters of the waveguide and the medium surrounding it. Application of this technique to a planar waveguide upon which proteins are allowed to adsorb from solution has yielded the first experimental data accurate enough to be able to test analytical expressions for the kinetics of random sequential deposition in two dimensions. The equation of Schaaf and Talbot for intermediate coverages describes the measurements with good accuracy. The rate of deposition should scale linearly with bulk concentration, but this was found to be the case only at low values (not greater than 20 mug/cm3), above which a marked deviation occurs.