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Strong hydrophobic interaction between graphene oxide and supported lipid bilayers revealed by AFM
Author(s) -
Hu Xiuyuan,
Lei Haozhi,
Zhang Xueqiang,
Zhang Yi
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
microscopy research and technique
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.536
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1097-0029
pISSN - 1059-910X
DOI - 10.1002/jemt.22690
Subject(s) - lipid bilayer , graphene , nanotechnology , oxide , atomic force microscopy , chemistry , membrane , materials science , biophysics , chemical engineering , organic chemistry , biochemistry , biology , engineering
Understanding the interaction between graphene oxide (GO) and lipid membranes is of great importance for its various applications in biotechnology. Here, we investigated the interaction between GO and charged supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) by in situ atomic force microscope (AFM) imaging. It was found that GO could peel off a single layer of positively charged SLBs and deposited on the hydrophobic part of the remaining sublayer. Then free lipid molecules would assemble on GO surface and formed 1.5 bilayers in a lipid‐GO‐lipid manner. For negatively charged lipid bilayers, however, GO deposited to the SLBs only when its concentration was very high. These results indicate that, in addition to electrostatic interaction, the hydrophobic interaction plays an important role when GO sheets deposit onto the charged lipid bilayers, and should be helpful to understand possible cytotoxicity and antibiosis of graphene‐related nanomaterials. Microsc. Res. Tech. 79:721–726, 2016 . © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.