Coupling between line tension and domain contact angle in heterogeneous membranes |
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Authors: | Kevin B Towles Nily Dan |
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Institution: | a Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia PA 19104, USA b Department of Physics and Astrophysics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA 19104, USA |
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Abstract: | The compositional differences between domains in phase-separated membranes are associated with differences in bilayer thickness and moduli. The resulting packing deformation at the phase boundary gives rise to a line tension, the one dimensional equivalent of surface tension. In this paper we calculate the line tension between a large membrane domain and a continuous phase as a function of the thickness mismatch and the contact angle between the phases. We find that the packing-induced line tension is sensitive to the contact angle, reaching a minimum at a specific value. The difference in the line tension between a flat domain (that is within the plane of the continuous phase) and a domain at the optimal contact angle may be of order 40%. This could explain why previous calculations of the thickness mismatch based line tension tend to yield values that are higher than those measured experimentally. |
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Keywords: | Phase separation Line tension Vesicle |
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