Ion Specific Effects in Colloid and Surface Science – Where Biology, Chemistry and Physics Meet

Dear Colleagues,

Ion specificity in colloidal and macromolecular systems has attracted widespread attention in the scientific community since the effect of different salts on the stability of protein solutions was discovered by Franz Hofmeister more than a century ago. Since then, the colloid behavior of biological, environmental, and industry-related systems has been comprehensively studied to understand the behavior of ions of different chemical compositions and valences at various interfaces. Due to the widespread contemporary interest in this topic in the scientific and technological communities, major efforts are being made to investigate the fundamental properties of colloids and surfaces, which can be tuned by different ionic environments.

The goal of this Special Issue is to discuss the most recent results concerning the ion-specific effects on the physico-chemical properties of interfaces. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Specific adsorption of ions at solid/liquid, liquid/liquid, and liquid/air interfaces;
• Surface forces across electrolyte solutions of different compositions;
• Particle aggregation processes in salt solutions;
• Interaction of ions with macromolecules;
• Interfacial behavior of ionic liquid constituents;
• Ion specificity in biological systems;
• Role of electrolytes in environmental processes;
• Influence of salt ions on the efficiency of separation techniques;
• Theoretical approaches to investigate ion-specific effects.

Fundamental properties of colloidal systems in the presence of multivalent ions.

Dr. István Szilágyi
Guest Editor

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