This work reports on the use of rate of change of work of adhesion (DW) as a tool to study adsorption of bovine serum albumin (BSA) to glass and Langmuir-Blodgett film of dihexadecyl phosphate (DHP) and dioctadecyl dimethyl ammonium bromide (DOMA) coated surfaces. Pure BSA and BSA with additives sorbitol and urea - have been adsorbed to bare glass surfaces and DHP and DOMA coated surfaces. The results suggest that an increase in DW with time indicates promotion of adsorption while a decrease indicates hindered adsorption. Further adsorption of BSA was most effective on DHP coated surface compared with bare glass and DOMA coated glass. In case of mixtures of BSA with urea and sorbitol, BSA + urea showed hindered adsorption while adsorption of BSA + sorbitol was efficient for all substrates. (C) 2008 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.