Influence of monovalent and divalent cations on the surface area of phosphatidylglycerol monolayers.

A theory is presented on the electrostatic properties of the surface area of phosphatidyl-glycerol monolayers spreading at an air-water interface in the presence of monovalent and divalent cations. In the present theory, the adsorption of monovalent and divalent cations to the membranes is taken into account, besides the dissociation of protons, as possible cause of the change of surface charge density with the variation of pH or ion concentrations. It is also pointed out that, in the presence of structure-making ions such as Li+ and Na+, the nearest-neighbour interactions between proton dissociation sites become important for the monolayers in the gel state to yield a sharp expansion of the surface area with the increase of pH. The present theory shows quantitative agreements with previously-observed data.