THE CHRONOPOTENTIOMETRIC REDUCTION OF PROTEINS ADSORBED ON MERCURY

The constant current chronopotentiometric reduction of five disulphide -containing proteins (bovine serum albumin, insulin, ribonuclease A, t ransferrin and trypsin), adsorbed on a hanging mercury drop electrode has been investigated. All five proteins showed a reduction peak at ap proximately -0.6 V vs. SCE due to the reduction of the disulphide grou ps. A linear relationship between protein molar mass and the adsorptio n area of the protein at monolayer coverage was observed, indicating t hat the proteins spread to a uniform thickness of approximately 10 Ang strom on the mercury surface.