On morphological selection rule of noisy character applied to model (dis)orderly protein formations

Review on the Macro-Transport Processes Theory for Irregular Pores able to Perform Catalytic Reactions

We review and generalize a recent theoretical framework that provides a sound physicochemical basis to describe how volume and surface diffusion are affected by adsorption and desorption processes, as well as by catalytic conversion within the space defined by the irregular geometry of the pores in a material. The theory is based on two single-dimensional mass conservation equations for irregular domains deduced for the volumetric (bulk) and surface mass concentrations. It offers a powerful tool for analyzing and modeling mass transport across porous media like zeolites or artificially build materials, since it establishes how the microscopic quantities that refer to the internal details of the geometry, the flow and the interactions within the irregular pore can be translated into macroscopic variables that are currently measured in experiments. The use of the theory in mass uptake experiments is explained in terms of breakthrough curves and effective mass diffusion coefficients which are explicitly related to the internal geometry of the pores.

Controlling protein crystal growth rate by means of temperature

We have proposed a model to analyze the growth kinetics of lysozyme crystals/aggregates under non-isothermal conditions. The model was formulated through an analysis of the entropy production of the growth process which was obtained by taking into account the explicit dependence of the free energy on the temperature. We found that the growth process is coupled with temperature variations, resulting in a novel Soret-type effect. We identified the surface entropy of the crystal/aggregate as a decisive ingredient controlling the behavior of the average growth rate as a function of temperature. The behavior of the Gibbs free energy as a function of temperature is also analyzed. The agreement between theory and experiments is very good in the range of temperatures considered.