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Intrinsic viscosity of bead models for macromolecules and nanoparticles

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Abstract

The calculation of the intrinsic viscosity by means of classical treatments of bead models, typically composed of a number of identical beads, presents some problems when applied to models where the beads are unequal and their number is not very large. A correction to this problem was proposed 10 years ago (García de la Torre and Carrasco in Eur Biophys J 27:549–557, 1998). This so-called volume correction, which consisted of adding a term proportional to the volume of the model, was proved to be rigorous in physico-mathemathical terms, and produced improved results in some circumstances, but not always. Recently, the volume correction is being reconsidered so that with some deduced or empirical modifications, it can allow for safer predictions of the intrinsic viscosity. This paper contributes a discussion and further improvements of that correction for the intrinsic viscosity.

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Acknowledgments

The possibility of an intermediate correction for the intrinsic viscosity was suggested to us by Prof. S. Harding (Nottingham University, UK). Our previous implementation of the correction (García de la Torre et al. 2007) has been thoroughly checked by Prof. Peter Zipper (University of Graz, Austria) and Prof. Helmut Durchschlag (University of Regensburg, Germany), whose comments and suggestions have been most valuable for the present work. Supported by grant CTQ2006-06831 (including FEDER funds) from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN), which also provided a predoctoral grant to D.A. and a postdoctoral fellowship to A.O. Our group is recipient of grant from the program Grupos de Excelencia de la Region de Murcia, 04531/GERM/06.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Química Física, Facultad de Química, Universidad de Murcia, 30071, Murcia, Spain

    José García de la Torre, D. Amorós & A. Ortega

Authors
  1. José García de la Torre
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  2. D. Amorós
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  3. A. Ortega
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Correspondence to José García de la Torre.

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AUC&HYDRO 2008—Contributions from 17th International Symposium on Analytical Ultracentrifugation and Hydrodynamics, Newcastle, UK, 11–12 September 2008.

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García de la Torre, J., Amorós, D. & Ortega, A. Intrinsic viscosity of bead models for macromolecules and nanoparticles. Eur Biophys J 39, 381–388 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00249-009-0405-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00249-009-0405-5

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