Prediction of denaturing tendency of organic solvents in mixtures with water by measurement of naphthalene solubility.

Addition of miscible organic solvents to water increases the solubility of naphthalene. The logarithm of the solubility is linearly dependent on the co-solvent concentration, in an intermediate range. The relative solubilising effects of different solvents correlate well with their known tendency to denature proteins (using literature data for trypsin, cytochrome c, chymotrypsinogen, chymotrypsin, laccase and myoglobin). This is expected if denaturation occurs when the hydrophobic effect has been reduced by a characteristic extent for a given protein. Naphthalene solubility predicts denaturation as well as does the denaturation capacity model.