No abstract

Nanoparticles (NPs) have great potential for biological applications as typically they exhibit strongly sizedependent properties. Specifically, the interaction of NPs with phospholipid membranes is significantly relevant to nanomedicine and the related field of nanotoxicology. Therefore, the investigation of interactions of NPs with model membranes is not only fundamentally important but also practically valuable to understand interactions of NPs with more complex cell membranes. Here, we report on the interaction of anionic vesicles of different charge densities and cationic SiO 2 NPs, either covered by a bare surface functionalized with amino moieties (-NH 2 ) or covered by poly[2-(dimethylamino) ethyl methacrylate]. We studied the kinetics of binding of NPs to the vesicle surface by time-resolved scattering experiments. A key result of the study is that binding is favored in the presence of electrostatic attraction, but the polymer layer decreases the binding rate drastically.

Fluorescence was collected from cyanine-dye-impregnated arachidic acid monolayers at the air/water interface with the use of a fiber optics configuration and a Langmuir film balance. Fatty-acid-to-dye molar ratios in the monolayers ranged from 99:1 to 1:1. The monolayers were compressed in a step-wise manner, with sampling of cyanine fluorescence after each compression step. A drop in fluorescence intensity ranging from 20 to 80% was observed between the uncompressed and compressed monolayers. The observed fluorescence decrease appeared to be a function of barrier pressure rather than molecular area and dye concentration.