Thickness decrease of a grafted polyelectrolyte membrane exposed to shear flow

Lipid membranes with transmembrane proteins in shear flow

The effects of embedded proteins on the dynamical properties of lipid bilayer membranes are studied in shear flow. Coarse-grained molecular simulations are employed, in which lipids are modeled as short polymers consisting of hydrophilic head groups and hydrophobic tail monomers; similarly, transmembrane proteins are modeled as connected hydrophobic double- or triple-chain molecules with hydrophilic groups at both ends. In thermal equilibrium, rigid proteinlike molecules aggregate in a membrane of flexible lipids, while flexible proteins do not aggregate. In shear flow parallel to the membrane, the monolayers of lipid bilayer slide over each other. The presence of transmembrane proteins enhances the intermonolayer friction. The friction coefficient depends on the chain lengths of lipids, the membrane tension, the length of the protein, and the cluster size. It is found to increase with protein length (with positive mismatch, i.e., proteins which are longer than the membrane thickness) and protein cluster size. In flow, proteins get oriented in the flow direction to reduce friction, with large fluctuations of the orientation angle.

Dynamical visualization of "coffee stain phenomenon" in droplets of polymer solution via fluorescent microscopy

In the drying process of polymer solution droplets, we propose an experimental procedure for visualizing the solute concentration profile by combining the fluorescent microscopy with the lateral profile observation. We have conducted a dynamical observation of the transport process of the solute polymer toward the edge that causes the "coffee stain phenomenon". We have found that the polymer concentration increases sharply near the edge, while it remains almost constant in the central region until the last stage of drying. The method is useful to understand the dynamical process that occurs near the contact line.