# Recent Advances in Stimuli-Responsive Membranes: From Supramolecular Design to Controlled Permeability

## TL;DR

This review discusses how stimuli-responsive membranes can change permeability using molecular design and external triggers like light and heat.

## Contribution

The paper highlights novel supramolecular strategies and mechanisms for creating tunable, responsive liposomal membranes.

## Key findings

- Functional guests like photochromic compounds and plasmonic nanoparticles enable reversible membrane properties.
- Precise control of lipid packing and phase behavior is crucial for creating transient membrane defects.
- Light- and heat-triggered behaviors are key for regulating permeability and cargo release.

## Abstract

Stimuli-responsive liposomal membranes have attracted growing interest as dynamic soft materials capable of regulating permeability, fusion, and cargo release in response to external or internal triggers. By incorporating functional molecular or nanostructured guests, such as photochromic compounds, plasmonic nanoparticles, or ionizable lipids, bilayers can be endowed with reversible and tunable properties. These modifications often rely on the precise control of lipid packing, phase behaviour, and the formation of transient membrane defects that facilitate molecular transport. This review aims to provide an overview of the molecular design strategies and underlying mechanisms used to engineer such responsive liposomal systems, with particular emphasis on light- and heat-triggered behaviours and on supramolecular approaches that modulate membrane structure and dynamics. Emerging trends, current limitations, and opportunities for future development in functional lipid-based materials and biointerfaces will also be discussed.