Bilayered membranes of Janus dendrimers with hybrid hydrogenated and fluorinated dendrons: microstructures and coassembly with lipids

Abstract

A biomimetic membrane formed by hybrid Janus dendrimers (JDs) which contain hydrogenated and fluorinated dendrons was explored by dissipative particle dynamics simulations. The JD membrane is bilayered and shows a bicontinuous morphology which is also observed in nano-sized dendrimersomes. The thickness of the dendrimersome is significantly less than that of the planar membrane. The co-assembly of lipids with JDs to develop a hybrid membrane was studied as well. Lipids tend to locate in the hydrocarbon domain of the bicontinuous structure of the JD-rich membrane, while 2-dimensional micelles of JDs float in the leaflet of the lipid-rich membrane. The microstructure of the hybrid membrane was quantified by interdigitation lengths in the hydrocarbon, fluorocarbon, and lipid domains. Finally, the influence of lipid concentration on lipid fluidity was examined in terms of lipid diffusivity, which is found to be closely associated with the membrane microstructure.