Binding of Oppositely Charged Membranes and Membrane Reorganization

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the electrostatic interactions between oppositely charged membranes in salt-free conditions, providing exact solutions to the nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann equation and exploring membrane reorganization effects.

Contribution

It offers the first exact solutions to the nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann equation for oppositely charged membranes without salt, and discusses membrane area renormalization due to Coulomb interactions.

Findings

Exact solutions to nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann equation for charged membranes

Electrostatic free energy contributions quantified

Membrane area renormalization effects analyzed

Abstract

We consider the electrostatic interaction between two rigid membranes, with different surface charge densities of opposite sign, across an aqueous solution without added salt. Exact solutions to the nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann equation are obtained and their physical meaning discussed. We also calculate the electrostatic contribution to the free energy and discuss the renormalization of the area per head group of the charged lipids arising from the Coulomb interaction.