Department of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California 92697-2025, United States.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California 92697-2025, United States.
Nano Lett. 2021 Dec 22;21(24):10325-10332. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c03556. Epub 2021 Dec 10.
Liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy (LP-TEM) enables the real-time visualization of nanoscale dynamics in solution. This technique has been used to study the formation and transformation mechanisms of organic and inorganic nanomaterials. Here, we study the formation of block-copolymer-supported bilayers using LP-TEM. We observe two formation pathways that involve either liquid droplets or vesicles as intermediates toward supported bilayers. Quantitative image analysis methods are used to characterize vesicle spread rates and show the origin of defect formation in supported bilayers. Our results suggest that bilayer assembly methods that proceed via liquid droplet intermediates should be beneficial for forming pristine supported bilayers. Furthermore, supported bilayers inside the liquid cells may be used to image membrane interactions with proteins and nanoparticles in the future.
液相透射电子显微镜（LP-TEM）能够实时观察溶液中的纳米尺度动力学。该技术已被用于研究有机和无机纳米材料的形成和转化机制。在这里，我们使用 LP-TEM 研究嵌段共聚物支撑双层的形成。我们观察到两种形成途径，涉及液滴或囊泡作为中间产物形成支撑双层。定量图像分析方法用于表征囊泡铺展速率，并显示支撑双层中缺陷形成的原因。我们的结果表明，通过液滴中间产物进行的双层组装方法应该有利于形成原始的支撑双层。此外，未来在液体池中使用支撑双层可以用于成像膜与蛋白质和纳米颗粒的相互作用。
