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Updated: May 17, 2026

Isothermal Titration Calorimetry for Measuring Macromolecule-Ligand Affinity
Published on: September 7, 2011
Isothermal titration calorimetry as a tool to determine the thermodynamics of demicellization processes
Anne Kessler1, Benjamin Zeeb, Bertolt Kranz
1Department of Food Physics and Meat Science, Institute of Food Science and Biotechnology, University of Hohenheim, Garbenstr. 25, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany.
Abstract:
Demicellization of a 90 mM sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) solution in water at 10, 22, and 30 °C was studied by isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). ΔH of the demicellization process was strongly temperature dependent, having an exothermic progression (-20.4 ± 0.9 kJ∕mol, max) at 10 °C and an endothermic one (3.7 ± 1.2 kJ∕mol, max) at 30 °C. ΔH for micelle dilution followed a slightly endothermic progression (0.9 ± 0.5 kJ∕mol at 30 °C, 0.7 ± 1.3 kJ∕mol at 22 °C, and 0.0 ± 0.5 kJ∕mol at 10 °C) at all studied temperatures. No differences in ΔH for micelle dilution and demicellization was observed at 22 °C. The temperature dependence of ΔH measured by ITC could be related to hydrophobic interactions. Therefore, ITC was shown to be a useful tool to describe the thermodynamics of demicellization processes and in addition to determine alterations in ΔH caused by changes in hydrophobic and steric∕electrostatic interactions.
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