Molecular resolution of a dioleoyl-Sn-glycero-phosphocholine lipid bilayer in liquid by phase modulation atomic force microscopy

Antonin Hoël (1) , Toshihisa Osaki (2) , Shoji Takeuchi (2) , Hideki Kawakatsu , Sebastian Volz (3)

1 SATIE - Systèmes et Applications des Technologies de l'Information et de l'Energie
2 LIMMS - Laboratory for Integrated Micro Mechatronics Systems
3 EM2C - Laboratoire d'Énergétique Moléculaire et Macroscopique, Combustion

We present a molecular resolved image of a supported lipid bilayer using atomic force microscopy in liquid conditions. Due to the well-known molecular diffusion processes with velocities of a few nm/s occurring in free-standing membranes, this type of mapping is difficult to achieve. We have obtained a sub-nanometer scale resolution of a dioleoyl-sn-glycero-phosphocholine membrane because of the high sensitivity of our phase modulated microscope and the slowed down diffusion due to the interaction with the substrate. A pair function analysis has revealed local disordered and gel phases with an order range limited to the first neighbour.

Domains: Materials Science [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]; Thermics [physics.class-ph]; Micro and nanotechnologies/Microelectronics

Antonin Hoël, Toshihisa Osaki, Shoji Takeuchi, Hideki Kawakatsu, Sebastian Volz. Molecular resolution of a dioleoyl-Sn-glycero-phosphocholine lipid bilayer in liquid by phase modulation atomic force microscopy. Applied Physics Letters, 2012, 101 (6), pp.063117. ⟨10.1063/1.4745184⟩. ⟨hal-01285851⟩