The effect of monoglycerides (monopalmitin and monoolein) on the structural and topographical characteristicsof
-casein adsorbed film at the air-water interface has been analyzed by means of surface pressure (
)-area(
A) isotherms and Brewster angle microscopy (BAM). At surface pressures lower than that for the
-casein collapse(
c-casein), attractive interactions between
-casein and monoglycerides were observed. At higher surface pressures,the collapsed
-casein is partially displaced from the interface by monoglycerides. However,
-casein displacementby monoglycerides is not quantitative at the monoglyceride concentrations studied in this work. From the resultsderived from these experiments, we have concluded that interactions, miscibility, and displacement of proteinsby monoglycerides in adsorbed mixed monolayers at the air-water interface depend on the particular protein-monoglyceride system, the interactions between film-forming components being higher for adsorbed than forspread films. The adsorbed films are more segregated than spread films, and both collapsed protein domains andmonoglyceride domains in adsorbed films are smaller than for spread films.