Transition from Unilamellar to Bilamellar Vesicles Induced by an Amphiphilic Biopolymer

Jae-Ho Lee, Vivek Agarwal, Arijit Bose, Gregory F. Payne, and Srinivasa R. Raghavan
Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 048102 – Published 31 January 2006

Abstract

We report some unusual structural transitions upon the addition of an amphiphilic biopolymer to unilamellar surfactant vesicles. The polymer is a hydrophobically modified chitosan and it embeds its hydrophobes in vesicle bilayers. We study vesicle-polymer mixtures using small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and cryotransmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM). When low amounts of the polymer are added to unilamellar vesicles of ca. 120 nm diameter, the vesicle size decreases by about 50%. Upon further addition of polymer, lamellar peaks are observed in the SANS spectra at high scattering vectors. We show that these spectra correspond to a co-existence of unilamellar and bilamellar vesicles. The transition to bilamellar vesicles as well as the changes in unilamellar vesicle size are further confirmed by cryo-TEM. A mechanism for the polymer-induced transitions in vesicle morphology is proposed.

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  • Received 12 August 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.048102

©2006 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Jae-Ho Lee1, Vivek Agarwal3, Arijit Bose3, Gregory F. Payne2, and Srinivasa R. Raghavan1,*

  • 1Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742-2111, USA
  • 2Center for Biosystems Research, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, College Park, Maryland 20742-4450, USA
  • 3Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island 02881, USA

  • *Corresponding author. Email address: sraghava@eng.umd.edu

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Vol. 96, Iss. 4 — 3 February 2006

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