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Updated: Jul 23, 2025

An Analog Macroscopic Technique for Studying Molecular Hydrodynamic Processes in Dense Gases and Liquids
Published on: December 4, 2017
Experimental support for reclassification of the light scattering second virial coefficient from macromolecular
Donald J Winzor1, Vlad Dinu2, David J Scott2,3
1School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia.
Abstract:
This investigation examines the source of the disparity between experimental values of the light scattering second virial coefficient [Formula: see text] (mL.mol/g2) for proteins and those predicted on the statistical mechanical basis of excluded volume. A much better theoretical description of published results for lysozyme is obtained by considering the experimental parameters to monitor the difference between the thermodynamic excluded volume term and its hydrodynamic counterpart. This involves a combination of parameters quantifying concentration dependence of the translational diffusion coefficient obtained from dynamic light scattering measurements. That finding is shown to account for observations of a strong correlation between [Formula: see text] (mL/g), where M2 is the molar mass (molecular weight) of the macromolecule and the diffusion concentration parameter [Formula: see text] (mL/g). On the grounds that [Formula: see text] is regarded as a hydrodynamic parameter, the same status should be accorded the light scattering second virial coefficient rather than its current incorrect thermodynamic designation as [Formula: see text] (mL.mol/g2), or just B, the osmotic second virial coefficient for protein self-interaction.
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