The adsorption of human immunoglobulin G (IgG) at the air/water interface was monitored both by the in situ radiotracer technique using [C-14] labeled IgG and by surface tension measurements. The results reveal that adsorption of IgG from single protein systems displays bimodality due to molecular rearrangements at the interface. Above the threshold value of 1.5 x 10(-2) mg/ml solution concentration, adsorbed IgG molecules reoriented from the side-on to the end-on configuration. The existence of a lag time which did not appear in Gamma = f(t) curves, was observed in Pi = f(t) relationships at low protein concentrations and was due to the limits of the surface pressure technique to detect protein adsorption. The adsorption of native IgG was also carried out in the presence of a hydrophobized IgG obtained by grafting capryloyl residues to its lysine groups by reaction with N-hydroxysuccinimide ester of caprylic acid, which yielded 19 covalently bound alkyl chains to the IgG molecule (19C(8)-IgG). This modified IgG exhibited enhanced adsorption at the air/water interface, as manifested by its increased adsorption efficiency relative to the native protein. Sequential and competitive adsorption experiments from binary mixtures of native IgG and 19C(8)-IgG clearly demonstrate that the displacement of the native protein from the air/water interface strongly depended on the manner of how 19C(8)-IgG and native IgG competed with each other. When the two proteins competed simultaneously, 19C(8)-IgG predominantly occupied the available area but when native Ige was adsorbed first, for 2 h, the sequentially adsorbed 19C(8)-IgG was incapable of substantially displacing it from the interface.