Issue 40, 2014

Can adding oil control domain formation in binary amphiphile bilayers?

Abstract

Bilayers formed of two species of amphiphile of different chain lengths may segregate into thinner and thicker domains composed predominantly of the respective species. Using a coarse-grained mean-field model, we investigate how mixing oil with the amphiphiles affects the structure and thickness of the bilayer at and on either side of the boundary between two neighbouring domains. In particular, we find that oil molecules whose chain length is close to that of the shorter amphiphiles segregate to the thicker domain. This smooths the surface of the hydrophobic bilayer core on this side of the boundary, reducing its area and curvature and their associated free-energy penalties. The smoothing effect is weaker for oil molecules that are shorter or longer than this optimum value: short molecules spread evenly through the bilayer, while long molecules swell the thicker domain, increasing the surface area and curvature of the bilayer core in the interfacial region. Our results show that adding an appropriate oil could make the formation of domain boundaries more or less favourable, raising the possibility of controlling the domain size distribution.

Graphical abstract: Can adding oil control domain formation in binary amphiphile bilayers?

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
12 Jun 2014
Accepted
25 Jul 2014
First published
25 Jul 2014

Soft Matter, 2014,10, 7925-7931

Author version available

Can adding oil control domain formation in binary amphiphile bilayers?

M. J. Greenall and C. M. Marques, Soft Matter, 2014, 10, 7925 DOI: 10.1039/C4SM01265H

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