STABILITY OF SUSPENSIONS OF SOLID PARTICLES OF PROTEINS AND PROTECTIVE ACTION OF COLLOIDS
Authors: Loeb Jacques 
Published: May 2004

1. It is shown that the concentrations of different salts required to precipitate suspensions of gelatin-coated collodion particles in water are practically identical with the concentrations of the same salts required for the "salting out" of gelatin from aqueous solutions. Neither effect shows any relation to the electrical double layers surrounding the particles.

2. It is shown that at the isoelectric point of gelatin, suspensions of gelatin-coated collodion particles are not stable and it had been shown previously that gelatin is least soluble at the isoelectric point. The addition of salt increases both the solubility of gelatin in water as well as the stability of suspensions of gelatin-coated collodion particles in water, and both effects increase with the valency of one of the ions of the salt.

3. This latter effect is not due to any charges conferred on the gelatin particles by the salts, since the cataphoretic experiments show that salts like NaCl, Na2SO4, or CaCl2, which at the isoelectric point of gelatin increase the solubility of gelatin as well as the stability of suspensions of gelatin-coated collodion particles, leave the particles practically uncharged in the concentrations in which the salts are efficient.

4. It follows from all these facts that the stability of suspensions of gelatin-coated particles in water depends on the solubility of gelatin in water; e.g., on the chemical affinity of certain groups of the gelatin molecule for water.

5. Though crystalline egg albumin is highly soluble in water, the stability of collodion particles coated with crystalline egg albumin does not depend upon the affinity of the albumin molecule for water, but depends practically alone on the electrical double layer surrounding each particle. As soon as the P.D. of this double layer falls below 13 millivolts, the suspension is no longer stable.

6. The critical potential for the stability of suspensions of collodion particles coated with genuine egg albumin is the same as that for particles of boiled (denatured) white of egg. Since through the process of heating, egg albumin loses its solubility in water, it is inferred that egg albumin undergoes the same change when it forms a film around a solid particle like collodion.

7. The influence of electrolytes on the stability of suspensions of collodion particles coated with casein or edestin was similar to that of collodion particles coated with egg albumin. The experiments are, however, complicated by the fact that near the isoelectric point CaCl2 and even NaCl cause a suspension again at concentrations of about M/2 or 1 M, while still higher concentrations may cause a precipitation again. These latter effects have no connection with double layers, but belong probably in the category of solubility phenomena.

8. These experiments permit us to define more definitely the conditions for a general protective action of colloids. Protective colloids must be capable of forming a durable film on the surface of the suspended particles and the molecules constituting the film must have a higher attraction for the molecules of the solvent than for each other; in other words, they must possess true solubility. Only in this case can they prevent the precipitating action of low concentrations of electrolytes on particles which are kept in suspension solely by the high potentials of an electrical double layer. Thus gelatin films, in which the attraction of the molecules for water is preserved, have a general protective action, while crystalline egg albumin, casein, and edestin, which seem to lose their attraction for water when forming a film, have a protective action only under limited conditions stated in the paper.