Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/2289/5091
Title: Phase behavior of two-component lipid membranes: Theory and experiments
Authors: Kamal, Md. Arif
Pal, Antara
Raghunathan, V.A.
Rao, Madan
Issue Date: May-2012
Publisher: American Physical Society
Citation: Physical Review E, 2012, Vol.85, 051701
Abstract: The structure of the ripple phase of phospholipid membranes remains poorly understood in spite of a large number of theoretical studies, with many experimentally established structural features of this phase unaccounted for. In this article we present a phenomenological theory of phase transitions in single- and two-component achiral lipid membranes in terms of two coupled order parameters: a scalar order parameter describing lipid chain melting, and a vector order parameter describing the tilt of the hydrocarbon chains below the chain-melting transition. This model reproduces all the salient structural features of the ripple phase, providing a unified description of the phase diagram and microstructure. In addition, it predicts a variant of this phase that does not seem to have been experimentally observed. Using this model we have calculated generic phase diagrams of two-component membranes. We have also determined the phase diagram of a two-component lipid membrane from x-ray diffraction studies on aligned multilayers. This phase diagram is found to be in good agreement with that calculated from the model.
Description: Open Access
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2289/5091
ISSN: 1539-3755
1550-2376 (Online)
Alternative Location: http://arxiv.org/abs/1203.5899
http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.85.051701
Copyright: 2012 The American Physical Society
Appears in Collections:Research Papers (SCM)

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