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Updated: May 8, 2026

Biomembrane Fabrication by the Solvent-assisted Lipid Bilayer (SALB) Method
Published on: December 1, 2015
Elastic properties and line tension of self-assembled bilayer membranes
Jianfeng Li1, Kyle A Pastor, An-Chang Shi
1The State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.
Abstract:
The elastic properties of a self-assembled bilayer membrane are studied using the self-consistent field theory, applied to a model system composed of flexible amphiphilic chains dissolved in hydrophilic polymeric solvents. Examining the free energy of bilayer membranes with different geometries allows us to calculate their bending modulus, Gaussian modulus, two fourth-order membrane moduli, and the line tension. The dependence of these parameters on the microscopic characteristics of the amphiphilic chain, characterized by the volume fraction of the hydrophilic component, is systematically studied. The theoretical predictions are compared with the results from a simple monolayer model, which approximates a bilayer membrane by two monolayers. The region of validity of the linear elasticity theory is analyzed by examining the higher-order contributions.
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