Optimal Conditions for Existence of Vesicles Under Electric Field

Abstract

Giant vesicles have been of intense interest as the model system for cell membranes. To bring numerous applications of the vesicles into full play, the existence time of the vesicles becomes particularly important. In this work, we explored the existence time of the vesicles in distilled water under four kinds of representative alternative current (AC) electric fields with different energizing time. When the application time of AC electric field reached 1 hour, the existence time of the vesicles reached the maximum value. As the applied electric field time increased, the existence time of the vesicles decreased. Thus, after obtaining the best vesicles on the carbon fiber electrode, disconnecting the external electric field is very necessary. Based on the in situ observation using inverted microscope, the disappearing phenomena of the vesicles were presented. In addition, it is found that vesicles in phosphate buffer solutions (PBSs) can last about 2–3 days when the electric field was applied for 1 hour, which was much longer than that in distilled water.