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Updated: Mar 18, 2026

Combining Microfluidics and Microrheology to Determine Rheological Properties of Soft Matter during Repeated Phase Transitions
Published on: April 19, 2018
Adsorption and rheological behavior of an amphiphilic protein at oil/water interfaces
Marina J Richter1, Alexander Schulz1, Thomas Subkowski2
1DWI - Leibniz-Institut für Interaktive Materialien e.V., Lehrstuhl für Makromolekulare Materialien und Oberflächen, RWTH Aachen University, Forckenbeckstraße 50, 52056 Aachen, Germany.
Abstract:
Hydrophobins are highly surface active proteins which self-assemble at hydrophilic-hydrophobic interfaces into amphipathic membranes. We investigate hydrophobin self-assembly at oil/water interfaces to deepen the understanding of protein behavior in order to improve our biomimetic synthesis. Therefore, we carried out pendant drop measurements of hydrophobin stabilized oil/water systems determining the time-dependent IFT and the dilatational rheology with additional adaptation to the Serrien protein model. We show that the class I hydrophobin H(∗)Protein B adsorbs at an oil/water interface where it forms a densely-packed interfacial protein layer, which dissipates energy during droplet oscillation. Furthermore, the interfacial protein layer exhibits shear thinning behavior.
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