The fundamental idea behind spontaneous protein adsorption is that adsorption occurs when more energy is released than gained according to Gibbs law of free energy.
This is seen in the equation:
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where:
* ∆ is net change of the parameters
* G is Gibbs free energy
* T is the temperature (SI unit: kelvin)
* S is the entropy (SI unit: joule per kelvin)
* H is the enthalpy (SI unit: joule)
In order for the protein adsorption to occur spontaneously, ∆G must be a negative number.