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Updated: Apr 10, 2026

Atomic Force Microscopy Imaging and Force Spectroscopy of Supported Lipid Bilayers
Published on: July 22, 2015
Energetics of the Phase Transition in Free-Standing versus Supported Lipid Membranes
Agustín Mangiarotti1, Natalia Wilke1
1Centro de Investigaciones en Química Biológica de Córdoba (CIQUIBIC, UNC-CONICET), Departamento de Química Biológica, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Haya de la Torre y Medina Allende, Ciudad Universitaria, X5000HUA Córdoba, Argentina.
Abstract:
We compared the thermodynamic behavior of supported and free-standing films of phospholipids with different chain length and showed that the change in free energy for the phase transition to a denser state was greater in free-standing than in supported membranes, with the differences being independent of the chain length. The presence of the support promoted a decrease in the energy gap between the coexisting phases of 1.7 kJ mol(-1), and this was a long-range effect affecting both leaflets, probably related with the impediment of out-of-plane motion of the film by the solid surface.
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