Lipid membrane instability driven by capacitive charging

Jonathan T. Schwalbe; Petia M. Vlahovska; Michael J. Miksis

doi:10.1063/1.3567276

Lipid membrane instability driven by capacitive charging

Jonathan T. Schwalbe^*, Petia M. Vlahovska, Michael J. Miksis

^*Corresponding author for this work

Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Letter › peer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

A new mechanism for lipid membrane destabilization and poration by electric fields is proposed. When a dc electric field is applied to an insulating planar membrane separating fluids with different conductivities, a capacitive charging current through the membrane in combination with shearing stresses, created by the electric field acting on its own induced free charge, drives electrohydrodynamic flow that modulates the shape and lipid density fluctuations. The instability is transient and decays as the membrane charges. Accordingly, the dynamics depends on the relative magnitude of the time for charging the membrane capacitor and the electrohydrodynamic flow time.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	041701
Journal	Physics of Fluids
Volume	23
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3567276
State	Published - Apr 19 2011

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Computational Mechanics
Condensed Matter Physics
Mechanics of Materials
Mechanical Engineering
Fluid Flow and Transfer Processes

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title = "Lipid membrane instability driven by capacitive charging",

abstract = "A new mechanism for lipid membrane destabilization and poration by electric fields is proposed. When a dc electric field is applied to an insulating planar membrane separating fluids with different conductivities, a capacitive charging current through the membrane in combination with shearing stresses, created by the electric field acting on its own induced free charge, drives electrohydrodynamic flow that modulates the shape and lipid density fluctuations. The instability is transient and decays as the membrane charges. Accordingly, the dynamics depends on the relative magnitude of the time for charging the membrane capacitor and the electrohydrodynamic flow time.",

author = "Schwalbe, {Jonathan T.} and Vlahovska, {Petia M.} and Miksis, {Michael J.}",

note = "Funding Information: J.T.S. and M.J.M. acknowledge the financial support by NSF RTG under Grant No. DMS-0636574 and NSF under Grant No. DMS-0616468. P.M.V. acknowledges partial financial support by NSF under Grant No. CBET-0846247.",

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doi = "10.1063/1.3567276",

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T1 - Lipid membrane instability driven by capacitive charging

AU - Schwalbe, Jonathan T.

AU - Vlahovska, Petia M.

AU - Miksis, Michael J.

N1 - Funding Information: J.T.S. and M.J.M. acknowledge the financial support by NSF RTG under Grant No. DMS-0636574 and NSF under Grant No. DMS-0616468. P.M.V. acknowledges partial financial support by NSF under Grant No. CBET-0846247.

PY - 2011/4/19

Y1 - 2011/4/19

N2 - A new mechanism for lipid membrane destabilization and poration by electric fields is proposed. When a dc electric field is applied to an insulating planar membrane separating fluids with different conductivities, a capacitive charging current through the membrane in combination with shearing stresses, created by the electric field acting on its own induced free charge, drives electrohydrodynamic flow that modulates the shape and lipid density fluctuations. The instability is transient and decays as the membrane charges. Accordingly, the dynamics depends on the relative magnitude of the time for charging the membrane capacitor and the electrohydrodynamic flow time.

AB - A new mechanism for lipid membrane destabilization and poration by electric fields is proposed. When a dc electric field is applied to an insulating planar membrane separating fluids with different conductivities, a capacitive charging current through the membrane in combination with shearing stresses, created by the electric field acting on its own induced free charge, drives electrohydrodynamic flow that modulates the shape and lipid density fluctuations. The instability is transient and decays as the membrane charges. Accordingly, the dynamics depends on the relative magnitude of the time for charging the membrane capacitor and the electrohydrodynamic flow time.

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Lipid membrane instability driven by capacitive charging

Abstract

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