Abstract
Multivalent particles competing for binding on the same surface can exhibit switch-like behaviour, depending on the concentration of receptors on the surface. When the receptor concentration is low, energy dominates the free energy of binding, and particles having a small number of strongly-binding ligands preferentially bind to the surface. At higher receptor concentrations, multivalent effects become significant, and entropy dominates the binding free energy; particles having many weakly-binding ligands preferentially bind to the surface. Between these two regimes there is a “switch-point”, at which the surface binds the two species of particles equally strongly. We demonstrate that a simple theory can account for this switch-like behaviour and present numerical calculations that support the theoretical predictions. We argue that binding selectivity based on receptor density, rather than identity, may have practical applications.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
M. Mammen, S.K. Choi, G.M. Whitesides, Angew. Chem. Inter. Ed. 37, 2754 (1998)
Y. Ke, L.L. Ong, W.M. Shih, P. Yin, Science 338, 1177 (2012)
J.D. Halverson, A.V. Tkachenko, Phys. Rev. E 87, 062310 (2013)
A. Reinhardt, D. Frenkel, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 238103 (2014)
L.O. Hedges, R.V. Mannige, S. Whitelam, Soft Matter 10, 6404 (2014)
W.M. Jacobs, A. Reinhardt, D. Frenkel, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 112, 6313 (2015)
F.J. Martinez-Veracoechea, D. Frenkel, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 108, 10963 (2011)
C.T. Varner, T. Rosen, J.T. Martin, R.S. Kane, Biomacromolecules 16, 43 (2015)
C.A. Mirkin, R.L. Letsinger, R.C. Mucic, J.J. Storhoff, Nature 382, 607 (1996)
P.L. Biancaniello, A.J. Kim, J.C. Crocker, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 058302 (2005)
N. Geerts, E. Eiser, Soft Matter 6, 4647 (2010)
P. Varilly, S. Angioletti-Uberti, B.M. Mognetti, D. Frenkel, J. Chem. Phys. 137, 094108 (2012)
L.D. Michele, E. Eiser, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 15, 3115 (2013)
B.D. Myers, Q.Y. Lin, H. Wu, E. Luijten, C.A. Mirkin, V.P. Dravid, ACS Nano, Article ASAP, doi: 10.1021/acsnano.6b02246 (2016)
C.S. Mahon, D.A. Fulton, Nat. Chem. 6, 665 (2014)
R. de laRica, R.M. Fratila, A. Szarpak, J. Huskens, A.H. Velders, Angew. Chem. Inter. Ed. 50, 5704 (2011)
N.B. Tito, S. Angioletti-Uberti, D. Frenkel, J. Chem. Phys. 144, 161101 (2016)
R.J. Rubin, J. Chem. Phys. 43, 2392 (1965)
S. Hong, P.R. Leroueil, I.J. Majoros, B.G. Orr, J.R. Baker Jr., M.M. Banaszak Holl, Chem. & Biol. 14, 107 (2007)
N.A. Licata, A.V. Tkachenko, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 158102 (2008)
C. Nicosia, J. Huskens, Mater. Horiz. 1, 32 (2014)
Y. Li, Y.D. Tseng, S.Y. Kwon, L. d'Espaux, J.S. Bunch, P.L. McEuen, D. Luo, Nat. Mater. 3, 38 (2003)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
Supplementary file supplied by authors.
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
About this article
Cite this article
Tito, N., Frenkel, D. Switch-like surface binding of competing multivalent particles. Eur. Phys. J. Spec. Top. 225, 1673–1682 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2016-60119-6
Received:
Revised:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2016-60119-6