Physicochemical-biological interfacial

Therefore, the role of physicochemical-biological interfacial interactions in controlling the transformation, transport, fate, and toxicity of metals and metalloids in soil and surrounding environments, especially the rhizosphere, which is the bottleneck of contamination of the terrestrial food chain, deserves increasing attention. In this chapter we present an overview of this emerging and extremely important area of science, to advance our knowledge of the interface between physicochemical and biological reactions and processes in the environment. 

The interfacial microenvironment around a microbial community, that is the sum of the physical, chemical, and biological parameters which affect a microorganism, determines whether a particular microorganism will survive and/or metabolize. The occurrence and abundance of microorganisms in an environment are determined by nutrient availability, and various physicochemical factors such as pH, redox potential, temperature, and solid phase texture and moisture. Because a limitation imposed by any one of these factors can inhibit biodegradation, the cause of the persistence of a pollutant is sometimes difficult to pinpoint. The summary follows [39,92,94,97,109,110,172,173,176,189,190, 195,248-252,256-300]. 

It is interesting that work on the internal motions of the molecules that produce lyotropic mesophases is more advanced. This is mainly because of the importance of the microscopic properties of these systems in solubilization and interfacial problems, problems which are encountered in industry as well as in cell membrane biology. The structural and functional roles of lipid molecules in biomembranes are much discussed investigations of the physicochemical properties of lipid media thus might provide orientations for biological studies. Moreover, the findings on the flexibility of the paraffinic chains in lyotropic mesophases might also be relevant to similar problems in thermotropic mesophases. 

PURPOSE AND RATIONALE Lipophilicity expressed as logPow correlates with membrane affinity and other biological properties as summarised in Kern s (2001) review on physicochemical profiling. However, the interfacial (anisotropic) character of bilayer membranes and the ionisable phospholipid head groups of biological membranes influence the partition properties of drugs. These... 

Colloidal systems occur everywhere—in soils, seawater, foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals, paints, blood, biological cells, and microorganisms. Colloids and Interfaces in Life Sciences and Bionanotechnology, Second Edition, an expanded and updated version of Colloids and Interfaces in Life Sciences, gives a concise treatment of physicochemical principles determining interrelated colloidal and interfacial phenomena. 

---