Nanoscale Departures: Excess Lipid Leaving the Surface during Supported Lipid Bilayer Formation

The behavior of small liposomes on surfaces of inorganic oxides remains enigmatic. Under appropriate conditions it results in the formation of supported lipid bilayers (SLBs). During this process, some lipids leave the surface (desorb). We were able to visualize this by a combination of time-resolved fluorescence microscopy and fluorescence recovery after photobleaching studies. Our observations also allowed us to analyze the kinetics of bilayer patch growth during the late stages of SLB formation. We found that it entails a balance between desorption of excess lipids and further adsorption of liposomes from solution. These studies were performed with liposomes containing zwitterionic phospholipids (dioleoylphosphatidylcholine alone or a mixture of dioleoylphosphatidylcholine, dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine, and cholesterol) on TiO₂ in the presence of Ca²⁺ but in the absence of other salts

Liquid–Liquid Interfacial Electron Transfer from Ferrocene to Gold(III): An Ultrasimple and Ultrafast Gold Nanoparticle Synthesis in Water under Ambient Conditions

Ferrocene (Fc) in ether reduces HAuCl₄ in water within seconds under ambient conditions in air upon stirring, forming ferricinium chloride stabilized water-soluble 20 nm gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) that are redispersible in the presence of poly­(<i>N</i>-vinylmethylpyrrolidone) or NaBH₄ + thiol. After reduction with NaBH₄ yielding Fc and 26 nm sodium poly­(hydroxyborate) stabilized AuNPs, the core size no longer changes following reactions with thiols providing (RS)_<i>n</i>AuNPs