| Numéro |
J. Phys. II France
Volume 7, Numéro 9, September 1997
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|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | 1185 - 1204 | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/jp2:1997180 | |
J. Phys. II France 7 (1997) 1185-1204
Late Stages of the "Pearling" Instability in Lipid Bilayers
J.L. Coveas1, S.T. Milner2 and W.B. Russel11 Department of Chemical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
2 Exxon Research & Engineering, Route 22 East, Annandale, NJ 08801, USA
(Received 1 October 1996, revised 7 April 1997, accepted 29 May 1997)
Abstract
Applying laser tweezers to cylindrical vesicles of lipid bilayers produces an instability which propagates down the vesicle
leaving behind it a peristaltic state, which appears under the microscope as pearls on a string. We investigate the late stages
of this "pearling" instability, where the pearls are observed to drift slowly towards the laser trap (the spot at which the
tweezers are applied, into which the surfactant is drawn) where they jam up. We model the hydrodynamics of the drifting pearls
as a combination of translation of the string of pearls, and "slipping" of the bilayer skin over the pearls, to relate the
speed of the pearls to the underlying flux of surfactant into the trap. We find that the pearl drift is slower than the skin-slip
speed by a factor of order
a/R where
a is the radius of the tethers connecting the pearls, and
R is the pearl radius.
© Les Editions de Physique 1997