title: Incomplete lipid chain freezing of sonicated vesicular dispersions of double-tailed ionic surfactants.
abstract: Lipid freezing in dilute sonicated vesicular dispersions was studied using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and 1H NMR. For charged, anionic, or cationic lipids, approximately half of the lipids remain in a fluid state when cooled 20 degrees C below the main chain melting temperature. With a zwitterionic phospholipid, on the other hand, essentially no supercooling of the liquid state was observed. The observations are analyzed in terms of the nucleation and growth of flat solid domains in originally fluid spherical vesicles. As the solid domains grow, the remaining fluid domain is deformed, resulting in a curvature stress. Depending on the vesicle size and the bilayer bending rigidity, the solid domain growth may terminate as the gain in cohesive free energy is balanced by the curvature stress of the remaining fluid domain. It is argued that high bending rigidities are required for having a significant supercooling, which is why it is only observed for charged lipids.
authors.affiliation: University of Lund, Physical Chemistry 1, Center for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, P.O. Box 124, S-22100 Lund, Sweden. Pieter.Saveyn@UGent.be
authors.forename: Pieter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Saveyn
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Van der Meeren
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cocquyt
authors.forename: Torbjörn
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Drakenberg
authors.forename: Gerd
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Olofsson
authors.forename: Ulf
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Olsson
mesh_terms: D002152:Calorimetry, Differential Scanning; D008055:Lipids / Q000737:chemistry*; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D013501:Surface-Active Agents / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D008055:Lipids; D013501:Surface-Active Agents