Issue 40, 2022

Characterization of lipid bilayers adsorbed to functionalized air/water interfaces

Abstract

Lipid bilayers immobilized in planar geometries, such as solid-supported or “floating” bilayers, have enabled detailed studies of biological membranes with numerous experimental techniques, notably X-ray and neutron reflectometry. However, the presence of a solid support also has disadvantages as it complicates the use of spectroscopic techniques as well as surface rheological measurements that would require surface deformations. Here, in order to overcome these limitations, we investigate lipid bilayers adsorbed to inherently soft and experimentally well accessible air/water interfaces that are functionalized with Langmuir monolayers of amphiphiles. The bilayers are characterized with ellipsometry, X-ray scattering, and X-ray fluorescence. Grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction reveals that lipid bilayers in a chain-ordered state can have significantly different structural features than regular Langmuir monolayers of the same composition. Our results suggest that bilayers at air/water interfaces may be well suited for fundamental studies in the field of membrane biophysics.

Graphical abstract: Characterization of lipid bilayers adsorbed to functionalized air/water interfaces

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
16 Jun 2022
Accepted
01 Oct 2022
First published
03 Oct 2022
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Nanoscale, 2022,14, 15048-15059

Characterization of lipid bilayers adsorbed to functionalized air/water interfaces

J. Pusterla, E. Scoppola, C. Appel, T. Mukhina, C. Shen, G. Brezesinski and E. Schneck, Nanoscale, 2022, 14, 15048 DOI: 10.1039/D2NR03334H

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