Non-linear characteristics of lipid monolayers in relation to the ability to self-organize

Abstract

It is known that electrostatic interactions strongly influence the growth of condensed phase domains at the main phase transition of lipid membranes. It is demonstrated in this paper that the inclusion of electrostatic interactions into the pressure-area-temperature equation of state provides a much better fit to the observed equilibrium behaviour than the classical van der Waals form. Both of these equations of state predict a region of negative differential compressibility (NDC), which is not described on long time scales because of a competing first-order phase transition. It is shown in this paper that dynamic NDC can account for most of the features of the observed oscillatory behaviour of monolayers at the oil-water interface. Such behaviour may be related to self-organization of spatiotemporal structures in living organisms.