Character of adsorbed bovine serum albumin from adsorption enthalpies.

Heats of adsorption of BSA onto polystyrene and polycarbonate were determined microcalorimetrically. The polymers were coated onto 50 nm alumina particles which were immersed in buffer for the measurements. Experimental variations to isolate the various component reactions of the integral heats included adsorption of native and denatured BSA from solution, adsorption onto substrates precoated with BSA, varying the thicknesses of adsorbed BSA by varying concentrations of the adsorbing solutions, and determining the denaturation energy by solution of the solid native and denatured BSA into a denaturing solvent.