Interaction of proteins with aluminum(III)-chlorophosphonazo III by resonance Rayleigh scattering method

In weak acid medium, aluminum(III) can react with chlorophosphonazo III [CPA(III), H(8)L] to form a 1:1 coordination anion [Al(OH)(H(4)L)](2-). At the same time, proteins such as bovine serum albumin (BSA), lysozyme (Lyso) and human serum albumin (HSA) existed as large cations with positive charges, which further combined with [Al(OH)(H(4)L)](2-) to form a 1:4 chelate. This resulted in significant enhancement of resonance Rayleigh scattering (RRS), second-order scattering (SOS) and frequency doubling scattering (FDS). In this study, we investigated the interaction between [Al(OH)(H(4)L)](2-) and proteins, optimization of the reaction conditions and the spectral characteristics of RRS, SOS and FDS. The maximum RRS wavelengths of different protein systems were located at 357-370 nm. The maximum SOS and FDS wavelengths were located at 546 and 389 nm, respectively. The scattering intensities (ΔI) of the three methods were proportional to the concentration of the proteins, within certain ranges, and the detection limits of the most sensitive RRS method were 2.6-9.3 ng/mL. Moreover, the chelate reaction mechanism or the reasons for the enhancement of RRS were discussed through absorption spectra, fluorescence spectra and circular dichroism (CD) spectra.