Figure 11.
Modeling the competitive adsorption of proteins onto charged networks as exemplified by charged core–shell microgels.[ 73 , 74 ] The shell consists of a charged network built up of hydrophilic chains. The network contains negatively charged monomer units, which lead to a charge density cg. The concentration of the counterions and the co‐ions within the network are regulated by the Donnan potential. The proteins are modeled by charged spheres with charge numbers z 1 and z 2, respectively, whereas the overall radii are given by R 1 and R 2, respectively. The uptake of proteins is governed by the interaction of the charged proteins with the Donnan potential of the network. [73] The model can consider the competitive adsorption of several proteins onto the network. [74] Here, two different proteins with effective charges z 1 and z 2 undergo competitive adsorption to the charged core–shell particle. The model leads to a fully quantitative understanding of the experimental results with four different proteins. [74]