Abstract
The dispersion of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in aqueous media is of potential importance ina number of biomedical applications. CNT solubilization has been achieved viathe non-covalent adsorption of lipids and detergent onto the tube surface. Weuse coarse-grained molecular dynamics to study the self-assembly of CNTs withvarious amphiphiles, namely a bilayer-forming lipid, dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine(DPPC), and two species of detergent, dihexanoylphosphatidylcholine (DHPC) andlysophosphatidylcholine (LPC). We find that for a low amphiphile/CNT ratio, DPPC,DHPC and LPC all wrap around the CNT. Upon increasing the number of amphiphiles, atransition in adsorption is observed: DPPC encapsulates the CNT within a cylindricalmicelle, whilst both DHPC and LPC adsorb onto CNTs in hemimicelles. Thisstudy highlights differences in adsorption mechanism of bilayer-forming lipids anddetergents on CNTs which may in the future be exploitable to enable enhancement ofCNT solubilization whilst minimizing perturbation of cell membrane integrity.
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