Shape fluctuations and elastic properties of two-component bilayer membranes

Abstract

The elastic properties of two-component bilayer membranes are studied using a coarse grain model for amphiphilic molecules. The two species of amphiphiles considered here differ only in their length. Molecular Dynamics simulations are performed in order to analyze the shape fluctuations of the two-component bilayer membranes and to determine their bending rigidity. Both the bending rigidity and its inverse are found to be nonmonotonic functions of the mole fraction $x_{\mathrm{B}}$ of the shorter B-amphiphiles and, thus, do not satisfy a simple lever rule. The intrinsic area of the bilayer also exhibits a nonmonotonic dependence on $x_{\mathrm{B}}$ and a maximum close to $x_{\mathrm{B}}\simeq 1/2$.

arXiv commentTo appear on Europhysics Letters

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