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Bilayers formed of two species of amphiphile of different chain lengths maysegregate into thinner and thicker domains composed predominantly of therespective species. Using a coarse-grained mean-field model, we investigate howmixing oil with the amphiphiles affects the structure and thickness of thebilayer at and on either side of the boundary between two neighbouring domains.In particular, we find that oil molecules whose chain length is close to thatof the shorter amphiphiles segregate to the thicker domain. This smooths thesurface of the hydrophobic bilayer core on this side of the boundary, reducingits area and curvature and their associated free-energy penalties. Thesmoothing effect is weaker for oil molecules that are shorter or longer thanthis optimum value: short molecules spread evenly through the bilayer, whilelong molecules swell the thicker domain, increasing the surface area andcurvature of the bilayer core in the interfacial region. Our results show thatadding an appropriate oil could make the formation of domain boundaries more orless favourable, raising the possibility of controlling the domain sizedistribution.

Can adding oil control domain formation in binary amphiphile bilayers?