Influence of Quaternary Ammonium Salts on the Formation of Catanionic Vesicles

• 1、School of Science, Tianjin University, TianJin 300072
• 2、The College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071
• 3、College of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029
• 4、School of Scince, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072

Abstract：In this paper, the electroformation method was used in constructing giant unilamellar vesicles(GUVs) with the mixture of quaternary ammonium salt and EggPC, and carbon fiber was used as ultramicroelectrode in this progress. Giant vesicles were obtained over a wide frequency range of 1-20MHz and peak-to-peak value from 0.212V/mm to 20V/mm between two parallel conducting electrodes of carbon fibers under alternative current (AC) electric field in distilled water or buffer solution. The influence of AC electric field, chain length of quaternary ammonium salt and buffer solution on the structural evolution of giant vesicles was in situ observed by inverted optical microscope. Our study demonstrates that the formation time of vesicles decreases with the voltage increases and the average diameter of the catanionic vesicles increases with the chain length of quaternary ammonium salts increases. Moreover, it is found that the application of buffer solution diminish the size of vesicles and extend the existence time of catanionics vesicles.

Keywords： vesicle quaternary ammonium salt ultramicroelectrode electroformation