Stiffness of lipid monolayers with phase coexistence

CARUSO, B.; MANGIAROTTI, A.; WILKE, N.

AMER CHEMICAL SOC

Lugar: Washington; Año: 2013 vol. 29 p. 10807 - 10807

he surface dilational modulus -or compressibility modulus- has been previously studied formonolayers composed of pure materials, where a jump in this modulus was related with the onsetof percolation as a result of the establishment of a connected structure at the molecular level.In this work, we focused on monolayers composed of two components of low lateralmiscibility. Our aim was to investigate the compressibility of mixed monolayers at pressures andcompositions in the two-phase region of the phase diagram, in order to analyze the effect of themechanical properties of each phase on the stiffness of the composite. In nine different systemswith distinct molecular dipoles and charges, the stiffness of each phase and the texture at the planeof the monolayer were studied. In this way, we were able to analyze the general compressibility oftwo-phase lipid monolayers, regardless of the properties of their constituent parts.The resu