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Thermodynamics of mechanical transduction of surface confined receptor/ligand reactions.

Bergese P, Oliviero G, Alessandri I, Depero LE

INSTM and Chemistry for Technologies Laboratory, University of Brescia, via Branze 38, 25123 Brescia, Italy. paolo.bergese@ing.unibs.it

Chemomechanics of surface stress is discussed in terms of interfacial thermodynamics. In the first section the paper shows how to quantitatively describe the chemical equilibrium of a receptor/ligand binding reaction confined at a solid-liquid interface and how the overall work of the reaction splits into chemical and surface work, that appears as a surface pressure. In the second section this thermodynamic model is applied to describe the experimental results of microcantilever bending induced by DNA hybridization occurring onto one of its faces.

Published 9 November 2007 in J Colloid Interface Sci, 316(2): 1017-22.
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