Use of a surfactant selective electrode in the measurement of the binding of anionic surfactants to bovine serum albumin

Abstract

A surfactant selective electrode has been used to measure the binding of a series of anionic surfactants to bovine serum albumin (BSA). The measured variation of binding with pH and with surfactant type was consistent with previous studies using equilibrium dialysis. The electrode measurements, in unbuffered solution, agreed with the binding inferred from induced changes in solution pH.

A comparison of the relative binding of different surfantants to BSA, as measured in the present and earlier work, does not support the conclusion of other workers that charge delocalisation in the benzene ring can lead to a dramatic enhancement in the binding to proteins of alkylaryl surfactants compared with that of ions with purely aliphatic chains.