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Hofmeister’s curse

Nature Chemistry volume 11, pages 963–965 (2019)Cite this article

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Understanding the effects of adding a simple salt to an aqueous solution of a protein is far from simple — and Bruce C. Gibb explains why.

It has been clear for more than 130 years that adding different salts to water can change the properties of non-electrolytes — such as proteins — dissolved in the solution. The most obvious manifestation of this phenomenon is found in bulk property measurements such as solubility, which the addition of salts can either increase or decrease. This straightforward observation began with two seminal papers by Franz Hofmeister which were part of a series1 of seven, collectively entitled ‘Zur Lehre von der Wirkung der Salze’(‘About the science of the effect of salts’). The two papers in question — ‘About the science of the effects of salts’ and ‘About the water withdrawing effect of the salts’ — revealed the precipitating power of different electrolytes on a range of substances.

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Fig. 1: Plot of the ionic standard partial molar volume of monovalent ions against their standard molar Gibbs free energy of hydration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry at Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA

    Bruce C. Gibb

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  1. Bruce C. Gibb
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Correspondence to Bruce C. Gibb.

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Twitter: @brucecgibb

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Gibb, B.C. Hofmeister’s curse. Nat. Chem. 11, 963–965 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-019-0355-1

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