Critical swelling of particle-encapsulating vesicles

Abstract

We consider a ubiquitous scenario where a fluctuating, semipermeable vesicle is embedded in solution while enclosing a fixed number of solute particles. The swelling with increasing number of particles or decreasing concentration of the outer solution exhibits a continuous phase transition from a fluctuating state to the maximum-volume configuration, whereupon appreciable pressure difference and surface tension build up. This criticality is unique to particle-encapsulating vesicles, whose volume and inner pressure both fluctuate. It implies a universal swelling behavior of such vesicles as they approach their limiting volume and osmotic lysis.

4 pages, 1 figure

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Law of corresponding states for osmotic swelling of vesicles
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• Determining membrane permeability of giant phospholipid vesicles from a series of videomicroscopy images
• Can amphiphile architecture directly control vesicle size?
• Permeability of phospholipid membrane for small polar molecules determined from osmotic swelling of giant phospholipid vesicles
• Swelling of particle-encapsulating random manifolds