I'm trying to understand how exactly the binding to silica gel (in kits) step works and I cannot find any papers which provide an explanation of the physics or chemistry; especially on the way that Guanidine-HCl works.
So lets get them from the beginning.
First of all, we adjust DNA binding conditions by adding a buffer which includes Guanidine-HCl and ethanol and then we centrifuge our sample. I knew that Guanidine-HCl destroys the tertiary structure of proteins but somewhere I read that also it helps the DNA to bind to a silica column. I searched to find the way that it works but I couldn't find a paper. Also what is the role of ethanol in this step? Is it just to remove proteins and polysaccharides from the sample?