Application of the Yukawa potential to the auto-controlled mechanism of the ovalbumin molecule in aqueous systems

Abstract

The rigidity of ovalbumin (OA) aqueous colloids remains almost constant over a wide range of OA concentration c from ≈0.1 to ≈17 wt%; this is called the auto-controlled mechanism. The Yukawa potential was applied to explain the auto-controlled mechanism and revealed that the effective charge Z * of the OA molecule is relatively small. Further, The Z * value is almost constant at extremely low concentrations and is proportional to c − 1 4 in the concentration range where the rigidity remains approximately constant.