Stability of inverse bicontinuous cubic phases in lipid-water mixtures

Abstract

We investigate the stability of seven inverse bicontinuous cubic phases ($G$, $D$, $P$, $C(P)$, $S$, $I-WP$, $F-RD$) in lipid-water mixtures based on a curvature model of membranes. Lipid monolayers are described by parallel surfaces to triply periodic minimal surfaces. The phase behavior is determined by the distribution of the Gaussian curvature on the minimal surface and the porosity of each structure. Only $G$, $D$ and $P$ are found to be stable, and to coexist along a triple line. The calculated phase diagram agrees very well with experimental results for 2:1 lauric acid/DLPC.

Revtex, 4 pages with 3 EPS-figures included

References in corpus (1)

• A systematic approach to bicontinuous cubic phases in ternary amphiphilic systems

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Detection and tracking of defects in the gyroid mesophase
• Competition brings out the best: Modeling the frustration between curvature energy and chain stretching energy of lyotropic liquid crystals in bicontinuous cubic phases
• Structural transitions of monoolein bicontinuous cubic phase induced by inclusion of protein lysozyme solutions
• Bicontinuous surfaces in self-assembling amphiphilic systems