Surfactants, micelles, and vesicles constitute a class of self-assembled soft-matter physical systems arising from amphiphilic molecules in solution. Above the critical micelle concentration, surfactants spontaneously form micelles, typically spherical or anisotropic aggregates with hydrophobic cores and hydrophilic coronas, governed by minimization of interfacial free energy and packing constraints. At higher concentrations or appropriate conditions (e.g., temperature, ionic strength, tail architecture), these assemblies can transition into bilayer-based vesicles, closed shell structures encapsulating aqueous volumes and exhibiting bending elasticity, membrane tension, and permeability properties. Collectively, these systems serve as model platforms for studying interfacial thermodynamics, mesoscale organization, and transport phenomena in complex fluids.
Our cells and the machinery inside them are engaged in a constant dance. This dance involves some surprisingly complicated choreography within the lipid bilayers that comprise cell membranes and vesicles—structures that transport ...
Bio & Medicine
Jun 26, 2024
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62
The expansion of clean chemistry applications for the vortex fluidic device (VFD)—invented by Flinders University's Professor Colin Raston—continues with the successful rapid and simplified production of artificial liposomes ...
Bio & Medicine
May 3, 2024
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109
A soap film with chemically distinct sides represents the latest breakthrough in research led by chemist Sylvestre Bonnet. This unique soap film, along with an innovative device capable of continuously producing new soap ...
Soft Matter
Jan 25, 2024
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104
The humble membranes that enclose our cells have a surprising superpower: They can push away nano-sized molecules that happen to approach them. A team including scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology ...
Bio & Medicine
Jan 23, 2024
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1105
A team of researchers based at the University of Toronto's (U of T) Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy has discovered a novel ionizable lipid nanoparticle that enables muscle-focused mRNA delivery while minimizing off-target ...
Bio & Medicine
Dec 8, 2023
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390
All cells secrete nanoscale extracellular vesicles naturally as lipid-bilayer delimited particles. Therefore they are valid biomarkers to identify a variety of diseases.
Vaterite is one of the three forms of calcium carbonate, along with calcite and aragonite. Nanosized vaterite is valuable for various applications, such as drug delivery, cosmetics, and bone defect filling, owing to its biocompatibility, ...
Bio & Medicine
Nov 7, 2023
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173
A collaborative study led by researchers from Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute has revealed the promising possibilities of using an agarose spot migration assay to examine the ability of extracellular vesicles to ...
Bio & Medicine
Oct 31, 2023
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102
A research team from the Department of Applied Chemistry and Life Science at the Toyohashi University of Technology has discovered a phenomenon in which specific lipids were concentrated on graphene oxide in a multicomponent ...
Bio & Medicine
Jul 19, 2023
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70
Cage structures made with nanoparticles could be a route toward making organized nanostructures with mixed materials, and researchers at the University of Michigan have shown how to achieve this through computer simulations.
Nanophysics
May 25, 2023
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103
