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Ligands influence a carbon nanotube penetration through a lipid bilayer

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Abstract

The interactions between nanomaterials and biological membranes are important for the safe use of nanomaterials. We explore the nano–bio interface by studying the penetration of a carbon nanotube (CNT) coated with ligands through a lipid bilayer. With a dissipative particle dynamics model, the mechanism of ligands influencing nano–bio interaction is analyzed. The CNTs with different ligands are tested. The simulation shows that the increase of the total number of ligand particles decreases the capability of a CNT penetrating through a membrane. For the CNTs with the same number of ligand particles, the arrangements of their ligands determine their behaviors. The asymmetrical pattern generates an upside down phenomenon, which requires more energy to get through the membrane; the uniform distribution penetrates through a membrane with less difficulty. Decreasing the stiffness, the length of ligands or preferring hydrophobic ligands increases the penetration capability of CNTs.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the financial support for portions of this research from the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under Grant No. CDJZR14905502, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 51175278, and the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmission, College of Mechanical Engineering, Chongqing University, Room 315-2, Teaching Building 7, Chongqing, 400044, China

    Fei Liu

  2. Departments of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA

    Fei Liu

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Dan Wu & Ken Chen

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  1. Fei Liu
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  2. Dan Wu
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  3. Ken Chen
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Correspondence to Fei Liu.

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Liu, F., Wu, D. & Chen, K. Ligands influence a carbon nanotube penetration through a lipid bilayer. J Nanopart Res 16, 2692 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-014-2692-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-014-2692-8

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