The use of a quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation
(QCM-D)
to study the adsorption of particles larger than 100 nm, such as liposomes,
viruses, and nano/micro-plastics, remains challenging owing to the
lack of appropriate models for data evaluation. This study presents
a method for quantifying the adsorption of negatively charged polystyrene
latex (100 nm–1 μm) at the solid–liquid interface.
The validity of a viscoelastic model based on Kelvin–Voigt
theory was assessed, and the model was used to evaluate particle adsorption
data obtained from QCM-D measurements. The Gauss–Newton method
was used to fit the data; the values obtained were larger than results
from atomic force microscopy, indicating that the viscoelastic model
combined with the Gauss–Newton method can quantify the adsorption
of large polystyrene particles and the surrounding water around them.
We suggested that QCM-D, in combination with an appropriate viscoelastic
model, is applicable to estimate adsorption at the solid–liquid
interface even for soft particles larger than 1 μm, which are
out of the range of applications to the hydrodynamics model. Furthermore,
we successfully showed that the recorded dissipation reflects the
viscoelastic properties of the layer. The viscoelastic model allowed
quantification of the rheological properties of the layer. The ratio
of the viscous and elastic contributions was characterized by using
loss tangent (tan δ) values that were extracted from the experimental
data by applying the viscoelastic model. These values were lower for
the adsorption of the negatively charged polystyrene particles on
a positive surface than on a negative surface. This suggests that
tan δ reflects the strength of the contact between the particle
and substrate.