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Updated: Jul 15, 2026

Self-Assembly of Hybrid Lipid Membranes Doped with Hydrophobic Organic Molecules at the Water/Air Interface
Published on: May 1, 2020
Self-assembled aggregates and molecular bilayer films of a double-chain fullerene lipid: structure and
Hiroto Murakami1, Takashi Nakanishi, Makoto Morita
1Department of Science and Technology, Graduate School of Materials Science, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki 852-8521, Japan.
Abstract:
The self-aggregation behavior of C60 fullerenes that bear two octadecyl chains (lipid 1) as well as the structures and electrochemical properties of cast films of 1 are described. We also examined the self-aggregation behavior in organic solvents of three previously reported compounds: C60 with three each of hexadecyl (lipid 2), tetradecyl (lipid 3), or dodecyl (lipid 4) chains. The fullerene lipids in alcohols spontaneously formed spherical aggregates, whose diameters are related to the alkyl-chain lengths, concentrations of the fullerene lipids, and the solvent polarity. The morphologies of the aggregates showed temperature dependence. Cast films of 1 formed multimolecular bilayer structures that undergo a phase transition typical of lipid bilayer membranes. The electrochemistry of cast films of 1 on an electrode in aqueous medium exhibits temperature dependence.
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