Loading of Vesicles into Soft Amphiphilic Nanotubes using Osmosis.
The facile assembly of higher-order nanoarchitectures from simple building blocks is demonstrated by the loading of vesicles into soft amphiphilic nanotubes using osmosis. The nanotubes are constructed from rigid interdigitated bilayers which are capped with vesicles comprising phospholipid-based flexible bilayers. When a hyperosmotic gradient is applied to these vesicle-capped nanotubes, the closed system loses water and the more flexible vesicle bilayer is pulled inwards. This leads to inclusion of vesicles inside the nanotubes without affecting the tube structure, showing controlled reorganization of the self-assembled multicomponent system upon a simple osmotic stimulus.
Centre for Systems Chemistry, Stratingh Institute for Chemistry, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG, Groningen (The Netherlands).
Petra M
PM
Erne
Electron Microscopy Group, Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 7, 9747 AG Groningen (The Netherlands).
Laura S
LS
van Bezouwen
Centre for Systems Chemistry, Stratingh Institute for Chemistry, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG, Groningen (The Netherlands).
Peter
P
Štacko
Centre for Systems Chemistry, Stratingh Institute for Chemistry, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG, Groningen (The Netherlands).
Derk Jan
DJ
van Dijken
Centre for Systems Chemistry, Stratingh Institute for Chemistry, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG, Groningen (The Netherlands).
Jiawen
J
Chen
Centre for Systems Chemistry, Stratingh Institute for Chemistry, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG, Groningen (The Netherlands).|Electron Microscopy Group, Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 7, 9747 AG Groningen (The Netherlands).
Marc C A
MC
Stuart
Electron Microscopy Group, Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 7, 9747 AG Groningen (The Netherlands).
Egbert J
EJ
Boekema
Centre for Systems Chemistry, Stratingh Institute for Chemistry, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG, Groningen (The Netherlands). b.l.feringa@rug.nl.
Ben L
BL
Feringa
amphiphiles; confined vesicles; nanostructures; osmosis; self-assembly