Morphological changes of amphiphilic molecular assemblies induced by chemical reaction

Abstract

Shape transformations of amphiphilic molecular assemblies induced by chemical reaction are studied using coarse-grained molecular simulations. A binding reaction between hydrophilic and hydrophobic molecules is considered. It is found that the reaction induces transformation of an oil droplet to a tubular vesicle via bicelles and vesicles with discoidal arms. The discoidal arms close into vesicles, which are subsequently fused into the tubular vesicle. Under the chemical reaction, the bicelle-to-vesicle transition occurs at smaller sizes than in the absence of the hydrophobic molecules. It is revealed that the enhancement of this transition is due to embedded hydrophobic particles that reduce the membrane bending rigidity.

9 pages, 10 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Transport coefficients of dissipative particle dynamics with finite time step
• Possible role of 3He impurities in solid 4He

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Determination of Elastic Parameters of Lipid Membranes with Molecular Dynamics: A Review of Approaches and Theoretical Aspects
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• Virtual bending method to calculate bending rigidity, saddle-splay modulus, and spontaneous curvature of thin fluid membrane