Gelatin/Clay Biohybrid Complex Coacervates: A Kinetic Study

The most common systems for investigating complex coacervation are systems containing two oppositely charged polyelectrolytes, for instance a protein and a polysaccharide[1, 2]. Furthermore, electrostatic interactions between oppositely charged protein chains and nano-sized inorganicsolids may lead to biohybrid coacervates with improvedproperties [3]. However, exploiting this new class of bionanocomposite materials is expected only after optimizationof the coacervation process and understanding the role of the governing physicochemical parameters. In this work, the aim is to optimize the complex coacervationbetween gelatin and nanoclay through investigation of theparameters affecting the process and also to appraise interaction between the major parameters. To this end, the study of the coacervation kinetics has been done by the use of Rheological measurments, turbidimetry and experimental design. The investigated parameters include pH, gelatin/nanoclay weight ratio (G/L), ionic strength (I) and total weight ratio (Wt) of the system