The surface charge of cells and some other small particles as indicated by electrophoresis: II. The interpretation of the electrophoretic charge

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It is shown that the electrophoretic behaviour of many micro-organisms is consistent with their outer surfaces being made up of large areas of non-ionogenic material interspersed with a small number of ionizing groups. The interaction of ions with both types of surface material and not with just the ionizing groups is suggested to be very important in understanding the effects of mono-, di- and polyvalent ions on the surface potential, the position of the reversal of charge concentration, and the occurrence of maxima in the charge density-electrolyte concentration curves. The specific case of E. coli is examined.