The phase behavior of a solution containing a mixture of large and small, cross-bridging (’’two-sided sticker’’) particles is studied using a lattice model analyzed with the aid of mean-field calculations and Monte Carlo simulations. Neither the large nor the small particles interact with each other (except for excluded volume effects). However, the small particles can adsorb onto the surface of one or two large particles, in the latter case providing a cross-bridge, i.e., an adhesive bond, between the large particles. The formulation of the model is motivated by experimental studies involving aqueous solutions of vesicles (the large particles) and biotin-avidin-biotin cross-bridges. This system exhibits a first-order phase transition from a dilute to a condensed phase of vesicles once the average number of stickers per vesicle exceeds a certain threshold value. The statistical thermodynamic description of the system becomes particularly simple upon (Legendre) transformation from the two-component canonical ensemble to a ‘‘mixed’’ ensemble involving a constant chemical potential of the cross-bridge particles. The phase separation behavior of the system is calculated for two sets of molecular parametrs, revealing good qualitative agreement with relevant experiments.

We develop a statistical thermodynamic model for the phase evolution of DNA-cationic lipid complexes in aqueous solution, as a function of the ratios of charged to neutral lipid and charged lipid to DNA. The complexes consist of parallel strands of DNA intercalated in the water layers of lamellar stacks of mixed lipid bilayers, as determined by recent synchrotron x-ray measurements Elastic deformations of the DNA and the lipid bilayers are neglected, but DNA-induced spatial inhomogeneities in the bilayer charge densities are included. The relevant nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann equation is solved numerically, including self-consistent treatment of the boundary conditions at the polarized membrane surfaces. For a wide range of lipid compositions, the phase evolution is characterized by three regions of lipid to DNA charge ratio, rho: 1) for low rho, the complexes coexist with excess DNA, and the DNA-DNA spacing in the complex, d, is constant; 2) for intermediate rho, including the isoelectric point rho = 1, all of the lipid and DNA in solution is incorporated into the complex, whose inter-DNA distance d increases linearly with rho; and 3) for high rho, the complexes coexist with excess liposomes (whose lipid composition is different from that in the complex), and their spacing d is nearly, but not completely, independent of rho. These results can be understood in terms of a simple charging model that reflects the competition between counterion entropy and inter-DNA (rho < 1) and interbilayer (rho > 1) repulsions. Finally, our approach and conclusions are compared with theoretical work by others, and with relevant experiments.

A comparison between a mean held theory of chain packing in membranes and micelles and Monte Carlo simulations is presented for model lipid bilayers. In both approaches the ‘’lipids’’ are modeled as freely jointed (but self-avoiding) chains of spherical segments. The first segment of the chain represents the head group, anchored to the bilayer interface by a harmonic binding potential. The simulations are performed for symmetric bilayers composed of 200 chains, with periodic boundary conditions. Both pure and mixed bilayers (composed of long and short chains) are analyzed. In the simulation nonbonded segments interact via Lennard-Jones potentials, ensuring nearly uniform segment density in the bilayer core, as assumed in the mean held theory. The lateral pressure profiles governing the probability distribution of chain conformations in the mean field theory are related and compared to the tangential pressure profiles calculated from the simulations using Kirkwood-Buff’s molecular theory. The two pressure profiles show very good agreement. We also calculate two conformational chain properties: end-segment distributions and orientational bond order parameters. The end-segment distributions calculated by the two approaches show excellent agreement. The order parameters compare somewhat less satisfactorily, yet we found that the order parameters derived from the simulations depend rather sensitively on the details of the interaction potential. In general, the results of the simulations support the use of the mean held theory as a (simple) tool for studying conformational chain statistics in confined environments and related thermodynamic properties, such as membrane curvature elasticity. (C) 1997 American Institute Physics.

A molecular level theory is presented for the thermodynamic stability of two (similar) types of structural complexes formed by (either single strand or supercoiled) DNA and cationic liposomes, both involving a monolayer-coated DNA as the central structural unit. In the ‘’spaghetti’’ complex the central unit is surrounded by another, oppositely curved, monolayer, thus forming a bilayer mantle. The ‘’honeycomb’’ complex is a bundle of hexagonally packed DNA-monolayer units. The formation free energy of these complexes, starting from a planar cationic/neutral lipid bilayer and bare DNA, is expressed as a sum of electrostatic, bending, mixing, and (for the honeycomb) chain frustration contributions. The electrostatic free energy is calculated using the Poisson-Boltzmann equation. The bending energy of the mixed lipid layers is treated in the quadratic curvature approximation with composition-dependent bending rigidity and spontaneous curvature. Ideal lipid mixing is assumed within each lipid monolayer. We found that the most stable monolayer-coated DNA units are formed when the charged/neutral lipid composition corresponds (nearly) to charge neutralization; the optimal monolayer radius corresponds to close DNA-monolayer contact. These conclusions are also valid for the honeycomb complex, as the chain frustration energy is found to be negligible. Typically, the stabilization energies for these structures are on the order of 1 k(B)T/Angstrom of DNA length, reflecting mainly the balance between the electrostatic and bending energies. The spaghetti complexes are less stable due to the additional bending energy of the external monolayer. A thermodynamic analysis is presented for calculating the equilibrium lipid compositions when the complexes coexist with excess bilayer.

Two structural-thermodynamic characteristics of cylindrical, wormlike micelles in dilute solution are studied using a molecular-level model: (a) the bending elasticity of the micelles and (b) their tendency to form intermicellar junctions (branches). The internal (free) energy of the micelles, before and after a bending deformation and junction formation, are calculated using mean field theories for the free energies of the molecules constituting these structures. The molecular free energies, which depend on the local packing geometries, include the contributions of head group repulsion forces, the hydrocarbon-water interfacial energy, and the chain conformational free energy. We find that when only the head group and surface contributions to the packing energy art:taken into account, the one-dimensional bending constant of the micelles is negligibly small, When the chain contribution is included, and when reasonable molecular packing parameters are used, we find that the persistence length, which is proportional to the bending rigidity, is typically a few tens of nanometers. The free energy change associated with the formation of a trijoint intermicellar junction upon the ‘’fusion’’ of one micellar end cap with the cylindrical body of another micelle is found to be small but positive; about 10 k(B)T at room temperature. This conclusion does not refute ?he possibility that intermicellar junctions are metastable transients or that their formation may be favored entropically, due either to conformational degeneracy or excluded volume interactions between micelles. Our conclusions apply to aqueous solutions containing one, single-tail, surfactant species.

Activation energies for desorption and for diffusion were experimentally determined as a function of surface coverage for the system of ammonia on Re(001) utilizing optical second harmonic generation techniques, For the first time coverage grating with up to 5th order SH-diffraction is reported for K atoms on Re(001). Preliminary diffusion measurements were performed on this system as well. These systems may be considered as ideal model to study the effect of very strong lateral repulsion on the kinetics of desorption and diffusion. A MC study on the ammonia-Re(001) system is presented, which examines the significance of long range repulsive dipole-dipole interactions on the outcome desorption and diffusion kinetics, We found that a single set of parameters, within the dipole-dipole like (1/r(3)) dependence on adsorbates separation distance, explains qualitatively and in certain cases quantitatively the experimental observations. Interaction range up to 4th order neighbors must be computed in order to properly account for the results.

The effects of adsorbate lateral interactions on the kinetics of surface diffusion and desorption are studied by means of kinetic and thermodynamic Monte Carlo simulations. This study is motivated by recent diffusion and desorption experiments on the NH3/Re(001) system, which show that the activation energies of these processes decrease (in different fashions) with increasing surface coverage, the interactions between the adsorbates are thus assumed to be repulsive. A long range dipole-dipole-like potential is used to simulate both the diffusion and desorption processes. Most calculations are carried out with the interaction range extending up to fourth-order neighbors. Longer ranges are found to barely affect the kinetic behavior. On the other hand, shorter ranges of interaction result in qualitatively and quantitatively different structural (thermodynamic phase) behaviors and, consequently, in very different kinetics of diffusion and desorption. The model used to calculate diffusion kinetics assumes that the activation barrier to particle diffusion depends, simultaneously, on the local environments of both the initial and the final sites involved in the elementary event of particle jumps. The chemical diffusion coefficient is evaluated based on thermodynamic and kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. It is found to increase with surface coverage, reflecting the repulsive nature of the interactions. Yet, unlike the experimental results, the increase is nonmonotonic but rather, somewhat oscillatory-reflecting the structural phase transitions of the adsorbed layer. The activation energy of desorption is found to decrease by about 15 kcal/mole as the coverage increases from 0 to 1, showing steeper slopes around the coverages corresponding to a perfectly ordered adlayer phase. These results are in satisfactory qualitative and quantitative agreement with experiment. Finally, it is shown that the coverage dependence of the activation barrier to diffusion can be reasonably well evaluated from equilibrium thermodynamic desorption data. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.

A detailed treatment is provided of the various free-energy terms that contribute to the transfer of a polyalanine ct-helix from the aqueous phase into lipid bilayers. In agreement with previous work, the hydrophobic effect is found to provide the major driving force for helix insertion, However, an opposing effect of comparable magnitude is also identified and is attributed to the large free-energy penalty associated with the desolvation of peptide hydrogen bonds on transfer to the low dielectric environment of the bilayer. Lipid perturbation effects as well as the entropy loss associated with helix immobilization in the bilayer are also evaluated. Two configurations of a membrane-bound 25mer polyalanine helix were found to be lower in free energy than the isolated helix in the aqueous phase, The first corresponds to the case of vertical insertion, in which a helix terminus protrudes from each side of the bilayer. The second minimum is for the case of horizontal insertion, for which the helix is adsorbed upon the surface of the bilayer. The calculated free-energy minima are found to be in good agreement with recent measurements of related systems, Large free-energy barriers resulting from desolvation of unsatisfied hydrogen-bonding groups al the helix termini are obtained for both insertion processes. The barriers for insertion are significantly reduced if the helix termini are assumed to be ‘’capped’’ through the formation of hydrogen bonds with polar sidechains, For uncapped helices, our results support recently proposed models in which helices are inserted by first adsorbing on the membrane surface and then having one terminus ‘’swing around’’ so as to penetrate the bilayer,

We present an overview of the modern study of complex fluids which, because of the overwhelming breadth and richness of this field, unavoidably neglects many interesting systems and research developments. In proposing a definition of the field. we discuss first the special role played by phenomenological theory and the limitations of molecular-level description. The remainder of the article is organized into sections which treat model colloids, micellized surfactant solutions, interfacial films and microemulsions, bilayers and membranes, and new materials. In each instance we try to provide a physical basis for the special nature of interactions and long-range ordering transitions in these novel colloidal and thin layer systems. At the heart of understanding these highly varied phenomena lie the curvature dependence of surface energies and the coupling between self-assembly on small length scales and phase changes at large ones..

A statistical thermodynamic approach is used to analyze the various contributions to the free energy change associated with the insertion of proteins and protein fragments into lipid bilayers. The partition coefficient that determines the equilibrium distribution of proteins between the membrane and the solution is expressed as the ratio between the partition functions of the protein in the two phases. It is shown that when all of the relevant degrees of freedom (i.e., those that change their character upon insertion into the membrane) can be treated classically, the partition coefficient is fully determined by the ratio of the configurational integrals and thus does not involve any mass-dependent factors, a conclusion that is also valid for related processes such as protein adsorption on a membrane surface or substrate binding to proteins. The partition coefficient, and hence the transfer free energy, depend only on the potential energy of the protein in the membrane. Expressing this potential as a sum of a ‘’static’’ term, corresponding to the equilibrium (minimal free energy) configuration of the protein in the membrane, and a ‘’dynamical’’ term representing fluctuations around the equilibrium configuration, we show that the static term contains the ‘’solvation’’ and ‘’lipid perturbation’’ contributions to the transfer free energy. The dynamical term is responsible for the ‘’immobilization’’ Free energy, reflecting the loss of translational and rotational entropy of the protein upon incorporation into the membrane. Based on a recent molecular theory of lipid-protein interactions, the lipid perturbation and immobilization contributions are then expressed in terms of the elastic deformation free energy resulting from the perturbation of the lipid environment by the foreign (protein) inclusion; The model is formulated for cylindrically shaped proteins, and numerical estimates are given for the insertion of an a-helical peptide into a lipid bilayer. The immobilization free energy is shown to be considerably smaller than in previous estimates of this quantity, and the origin of the difference is discussed in detail.

We consider the possibility of smectic and columnar phases in fluids and colloidal suspensions of aligned rods and disks interacting through excluded-volume forces. After briefly reviewing previous work, and applying known cell model techniques to compare the phase behaviors of disks and rods, we present and discuss the results from new Monte Carlo simulations of perfectly oriented rods (spherocylinders) and disks (torocylinders). We conclude tentatively that columnar phases are stable only in the case of disks.

Pore formation in unilamellar lipid vesicles is believed to occur when the concentration of membrane-bound drug molecules exceeds a certain value. We treat this phenomenon in analogy with that of the micellization of surfactant in bulk aqueous solutions, thereby relating the threshold concentration of drug molecules to the free energy associated with transferring a molecule to a pore from its uniformly-dispersed state in the membrane. Incorporating the effect of lateral tension induced by osmotic pressure, we calculate the lowering of the pore-formation threshold with increasing tension. These predictions are tested by direct measurements on liposomal dispersions involving the antifungal drug amphotericin B.

The angular intensity distribution of He beams scattered from compact clusters and from diffusion limited aggregates, epitaxially grown on metal surfaces, is investigated theoretically. The purpose is two-fold: to distinguish compact cluster structures from diffusion limited aggregates, and to find observable signatures that can characterize the compact clusters at the atomic level of detail. To simplify the collision dynamics, the study is carried out in the framework of the sudden approximation, which assumes that momentum changes perpendicular to the surface are targe compared with momentum transfer due to surface corrugation. The diffusion limited aggregates on which the scattering calculations were done, were generated by kinetic Monte Carlo simulations, It is demonstrated, by focusing on the example of compact Pt heptamers, that signatures of structure of compact clusters may indeed be extracted from the scattering distribution. These signatures enable both an experimental distinction between diffusion limited aggregates and compact clusters, and a determination of the cluster structure, The characteristics comprising the signatures are, to varying degrees, the rainbow, Fraunhofer, specular and constructive interference peaks, all seen in the intensity distribution, It is also shown, how the distribution of adsorbate heights above the metal surface can be obtained by an analysis of the specuIar peak attenuation. The results contribute to establishing He scattering as a powerful tool in the investigation of surface disorder and epitaxial growth on surfaces, alongside with STM.

This article describes briefly several applications of a molecular theory of lipid organization in membranes to systems of biophysical interest. After introducing the basic concepts of this mean field theory we outline three of its recent applications. i) Calculations of lipid chain conformational statistics in membrane bilayers, and comparison of the results (e.g. bond orientational order parameters) to experiment and molecular dynamics simulations. Good agreement is found. ii) A molecular model for lipid-protein interactions, which explicitly considers the effects of a rigid hydrophobic protein on the elastic (conformational) properties of the lipid bilayer. We also analyze the role of the ‘hydrophobic mismatch’ between the protein and lipid bilayer thickness. iii) A molecular level calculation of the vesicle to micelle transition, attendant upon the addition of (’curvature loving’) surfactant to a lipid bilayer vesicle. Future applications, e.g. to the calculation of the free energy barriers involved in membrane fusion are briefly mentioned.

A two-dimensional lattice model, originally introduced by Granek et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 101, 4331 (l994)], is used to demonstrate the intricate coupling between the intramicellar interactions that determine the optimal aggregation geometry of surfactant molecules in dilute solution, and the intermicellar interactions that govern the phase behavior at higher concentrations. Three very different scenarios of self-assembly and phase evolution are analyzed in detail, based on Monte Carlo studies and theoretical interpretations involving mean-field, Landau-Ginzburg, Bethe-Peierls, and virial expansion schemes. The basic particles in the model are ‘’unit micelles’’ which, due to spontaneous self-assembly or because of excluded area interactions, can fuse td form larger aggregates; These aggregates are envisaged as hat micelles composed of a bilayerlike body surrounded: by a curved semitoroidal rim. The system’s Hamiltonian involves one- through four-body potentials between the unit micelles, which account for their tendency to form aggregates of different shapes, e.g., elongated vs disklike micelles. Equivalently the configurational energy of the system is a sum of micellar self-energies involving the packing free energies of the constituent molecules in the bilayer body and in rim segments of different local curvature. The rim energy is a sum of a line tension term and a 1D curvature energy which depends on the rim spontaneous curvature and bending rigidity. Different combinations of these molecular parameters imply different optimal packing geometries and hence different self-assembly and phase behaviors. The emphasis in this paper Is on systems of ‘’curvature loving’’ amphiphiles which, in our model, are characterized by negative line tension. The three systems studied are: (i) A dilute solution of stable disklike micelles which, upon increasing the concentration, undergoes a first-order phase transition to a continuous bilayer with isolated hole defects. An intermediate modulated ‘’checkerboard’’ phase appears under certain conditions at low temperatures. (ii) A system of unit micelles which in dilute solution tend to associate into Linear micelles. These micelles are rodlike gt low temperatures, becoming increasingly more flexible as the temperature increases.-Upon increasing the concentration the micelles grow and undergo (in 2D) a continuous transition into nematic and ‘’stripe’’ phases of long rods. At still higher concentrations the micellar stripes fuse into continuous sheets with line defects. (iii) A system in which, already in dilute solution, the micelles favor the formation of branched aggregates, analogous to the branched cylindrical micelles recently observed in certain surfactant solutions, As the concentration increases the micelles associate into networks (’’gels’’) composed of a mesh of linear micelles linked by ‘’T-like’’ intermicellar junctions. The network may span the entire system or phase separate and coexist with a dilute micellar phase, depending on the details of the molecular packing parameters. (C) 1995 American Institute of Physics.

The elastic behavior of mixed bilayers composed of two amphiphilic components with different chain length (and identical head groups) is studied using two molecular level models. In both, the bilayer free energy is expressed as a sum of chain, head group and interfacial contributions as well as a mixing entropy term. The head group and interfacial terms are modeled using simple phenomenological but general expressions. The models differ in their treatment of the chain conformational free energy. In one it is calculated using a detailed mean-field molecular theory. The other is based on a simple ‘’compression’’ model. Both models lead to similar conclusions. Expressing the bilayer free energy as a sum of its two monolayer contributions, a thermodynamic stability analysis is performed to examine the possibility of spontaneous vesicle formation. To this end, we expand the bilayer free energy as a power series (up to second order) in terms of the monolayer curvatures, their amphiphilic compositions and the average cross sectional areas per molecule; all variables are coupled, with the molecular composition and areas treated as degrees of freedom which are allowed to relax during bending. Using reasonable molecular interaction parameters we find that a second order transition from a planar to a curved (vesicle) geometry in a randomly mixed bilayer is unlikely. Most of our analysis is devoted to calculating the spontaneous curvature and the bending rigidity of the bilayer as a function of its amphiphile chain composition. We find that adding short chain amphiphiles to a layer of long chain molecules reduces considerably its bending rigidity, as already known from calculations involving only the chain contributions. However, we find that inclusion of head group and interfacial interactions moderates the effect of the added short chains. We also find that the bending rigidity Of pure monolayers is approximately linear in chain length, as compared to the nearly cubic dependence implied by the chain free energy alone (at constant head group area). Our main result involves the calculation of the spontaneous curvature as a function of composition. We find, for different chain mixtures, that upon adding short chains to long chain monolayers, the spontaneous curvature first increases nearly Linearly with composition and then (beyond mole fraction of about 0.5) begins to saturate towards the spontaneous curvature of a pure short chain layer. Qualitative arguments are provided to explain this behavior. (C) 1995 American Institute of physics.

A molecular model is used to calculate the free energy of mixed vesicles and cylindrical micelles, composed of lipid molecules and short chain surfactants. The free energy of both aggregates (modeled as an infinite planar bilayer and an infinite cylindrical aggregate) is represented as a sum of internal free energy and mixing entropy contributions. The internal free energy is treated as a sum of chain (conformational), head group, and surface tension terms. Calculating the free energy of each aggregation geometry as a function of lipid/surfactant composition and using common tangent construction we obtain the compositions of the bilayer and the micelle at the phase transition. By varying certain molecular parameters (such as the ‘’hard core’’ area of the surfactant head group or the length of the surfactant tail) we study the role of molecular packing characteristics in determining the compositions at phase coexistence. We find, as expected, that upon increasing the preference of the surfactant for the micellar geometry (larger spontaneous curvature) the bilayer is solubilized at lower surfactant/lipid concentration ratios. For some typical values of the parameters used, reasonable agreement with experimental results for mixtures of egg phosphatidylcholine and octylglucoside is obtained.

We study the two-dimensional (2-D) structural and thermodynamic changes in smectic-A/lamellar phases of self-assembling surfactant systems, in which the rim associated with a bilayer edge has a preferred curvature. This property was not considered in previous studies of 2-D aggregation, where an infinite bilayer emerges already at very low concentrations. A lattice Hamiltonian is used to describe the bending energy of the rim: An occupied lattice site corresponds to a minimum, disklike, micelle, and a bending energy penalty is associated with corners and straight edges depending on the value of the spontaneous curvature. When the spontaneous radius of curvature of the rim is small and the bending modulus is large, we find that the ‘’condensation’’ transition-i.e., the ‘’collapse’’ of the finite aggregates into a continuous bilayer-is postponed to high concentrations. At low concentrations the bending energy leads to an effective repulsive interaction between the aggregates, which in turn can result in ordered (modulated) structures for not too large ratios of thermal energy to bending energy (which is the expected situation in most systems of interest). Our model should be applicable to the systems of decylammonium chloride and cesium perflourooctanoate studied by Boden and co-workers (NMR and conductivity measurements) and Zasadzinski and co-workers (freeze fracture), where monodisperse micellar disks are observed to layer in stacked planes. In the latter system a 2-D order of disk-shaped aggregates appears within the smectic-A layers, which is also consistent with our theory. Experimental studies of the structural evolution under further condensation of the system are not yet available.