Tween surfactants: Adsorption, self-organization, and protein resistance

Tween surfactants, each containing hydrophilic ethylene glycol head groups and a hydrophobic alkyl tail, are being actively explored as protein-resistant surface coatings, but little is known about how they adsorb on surfaces. We carry out a comparative study of the adsorption of two Tween molecules (same hydrophilic head group, but a shorter dodecyl tail for Tween 20 and a longer octadecyl tail for Tween 40) on Au and polystyrene surfaces. Despite the similarity between these two molecules, there is a drastic difference in their protein resistance: a monolayer of Tween 20 on a hydrophobic surface is repulsive against protein adsorption but that of Tween 40 is not. The difference in protein resistance can be attributed to two distinctly different adsorption mechanisms. While the adsorption of Tween 40 is described by a simple first-order mechanism, that of Tween 20 consists of a fast adsorption step and a slower reorganization process at a high surface coverage. The latter leads to the formation of a high-density and self-organized monolayer, which is responsible for the enhanced stability and resistance against non-specific protein adsorption.