Hydrophobically coated gold nanoparticles have been inserted in swollen surfactant lamellar phases. Insertion of the gold nanoparticles is observed only above a critical hydrophobic thickness that depends on the particle size. Such a system can thus be used as a size filter for hydrophobically coated gold nanoparticles. Above this critical thickness, large amounts of nanoparticles can be inserted, forming a 2D fluid in each lamella. The interaction

We determine by small-angle x-ray scattering the structure factor of hydrophobic particles inserted within lamellar surfactant phases for various particle concentrations. The data are then analyzed by numerically solving the Ornstein-Zernicke equation, taking into account both the intra- and interlayer interactions. We find that particles within the same layer repel each other and that the interaction potential (taken as independent of the concentration)

We study charged nanoparticles adsorbed onto surfactant bilayers using small-angle scattering of synchrotron radiation. The in-plane interaction of the particles is well described by a DLVO component (measured independently in solution) and a repulsive dipolar interaction due to the presence of the interface, with an amplitude close to the theoretical prediction. We prove that charged nanoparticles at soft interfaces are well described by the classical

We investigate a non-ionic surfactant (C12E8)/water binary mixture, over a wide range of concentrations and temperatures (i.e. 1–35 wt.% of C12E8 and 10–60 °C in temperature) by means of different experimental techniques: Small-Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS), Quasi Elastic Light Scattering (QELS) and High Frequency Rheology. The aims of this work are to provide information on structure, thermodynamics and dynamics of the isotropic phase of

We investigated the X-ray scattering signal of highly aligned multilayers of the zwitterionic lipid 1,2-dilauroyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylcholine containing pores formed by the antimicrobial peptide gramicidin as a function of the peptide/lipid ratio. We are able to obtain information on the structure factor of the pore fluid, which then yields the interaction potential between pores in the plane of the bilayers. Aside from a hard core with a radius

Continuum elastic models that account for membrane thickness variations are especially useful in the description of nanoscale deformations due to the presence of membrane proteins with hydrophobic mismatch. We show that terms involving the gradient and the Laplacian of the area per lipid are significant and must be retained in the effective Hamiltonian of the membrane. We reanalyze recent numerical data, as well as experimental data on gramicidin

We study by synchrotron small-angle x-ray scattering highly aligned lamellar phases of a zwitterionic surfactant, doped with monodisperse and spherical hydrophobic inorganic particles as a function of particle concentration. Analysis of the structure factor of the two-dimensional fluid formed by the particles in the plane of the bilayer gives access to their membrane-mediated interaction, which is repulsive, with a contact value of about 4kBT and