Amphiphilic Nanoparticles Control the Growth and Stability of Lipid Bilayers with Open Edges

Molecular amphiphiles self-assemble in polar media to form ordered structures such as micelles and vesicles essential to a broad range of industrial and biological processes. Some of these architectures such as bilayer sheets, helical ribbons, and hollow tubules are potentially useful but inherently unstable owing to the presence of open edges that expose the hydrophobic bilayer core. Here, we describe a strategy to stabilize open bilayer structures using amphiphilic nanoparticle surfactants that present mixtures of hydrophilic and hydrophobic ligands on their surface. We observe that these particles bind selectively to the open edge of bilayer membranes to stabilize otherwise transient amphiphile assemblies. We show how such particles can precisely control the size of lipid tubules, how they can inhibit the formation of undesirable assemblies such as gallstone precursors, and how they can stabilize free-floating lipid microdiscs.