Correlated lateral phase separations in stacks of lipid membranes
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo 192-0397 (Japan)
- Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv 69978 (Israel)
Motivated by the experimental study of Tayebi et al. [Nat. Mater. 11, 1074 (2012)] on phase separation of stacked multi-component lipid bilayers, we propose a model composed of stacked two-dimensional Ising spins. We study both its static and dynamical features using Monte Carlo simulations with Kawasaki spin exchange dynamics that conserves the order parameter. We show that at thermodynamical equilibrium, due to strong inter-layer correlations, the system forms a continuous columnar structure for any finite interaction across adjacent layers. Furthermore, the phase separation shows a faster dynamics as the inter-layer interaction is increased. This temporal behavior is mainly due to an effective deeper temperature quench because of the larger value of the critical temperature, T{sub c}, for larger inter-layer interaction. When the temperature ratio, T/T{sub c}, is kept fixed, the temporal growth exponent does not increase and even slightly decreases as a function of the increased inter-layer interaction.
- OSTI ID:
- 22493372
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 143, Issue 24; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-9606
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Interlamellar Organization of Phase Separated Domains in Multi-Component Lipid Multilayers: Energetic Considerations
Carotenoids promote lateral packing and condensation of lipid membranes