Electric field unbinding of solid-supported lipid multilayers

TL;DR

This study investigates how an electric field causes unbinding of hydrated lipid multilayers on solid supports, revealing the kinetics and final states through X-ray reflectivity measurements.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the unbinding process of lipid multilayers under electric fields using X-ray reflectivity, which was not extensively studied before.

Findings

Unbinding rate depends on electric field amplitude and frequency.

The final state of the multilayers after unbinding was characterized.

Kinetics of sample loss were quantitatively measured.

Abstract

We studied by X-ray reflectivity the behaviour of fully hydrated solid-supported lipid multilayers under the influence of a transverse electric field, under conditions routinely used in the electroformation process. The kinetics of sample loss (unbinding) was measured as a function of the amplitude and frequency of the applied field by monitoring the integrated intensity of the Bragg peaks. We also performed a time-resolved analysis of the intensity of the first Bragg peak and characterized the final state of the sample.