Figure 1.

Theoretical predictions for the amount of protein adsorbed as a function of the surface coverage of EO oligomers (full lines). The experimental observations (symbols) are from Prime and Whitesides (24, 25), where they measured the thickness of the adsorbed film (in nm), which is proportional to the surface density of protein, as a function of composition of a mixed self-assembled film. The mixed films are composed by SC₁₀OH and SC₁₁(EO)_n, with n = 6 and 17, on gold surfaces. The relationship between the experimentally observed thickness and the protein density was fitted so that at zero composition the predictions and the experimental observations agree. The parameters used in the calculations are from refs. 11 and 22.