Atomic force microscopic study on lipid bilayer nanoscale phase separation

Abstract

Phase separation of copolymers or lipid membranes in nanoscale has attracted increasing interests for their applications in the synthesis of inorganic nanomaterial. The nanoscale phase separation of liquid bilayer as a supported membrane is systematically investigated by atomic force microscope (AFM). Moreover, the position of the fluorescence indicator, which is commonly used in the phase separation study in optical microscope, is also probed in this study to complete the knowledge of tradition microscopy research. Overall, the authors demonstrate the advantages of using AFM for phase separation study in this article.