Vesicles form with pH shift

摘要

Lipid bilayers, which make up cell membranes, can change shape in response to external stimuli. To reproduce this behaviour in a synthetic i system, Jan van Esch at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and his co-workers have produced a vesicle - a water-filled compartment bounded by a bilayer membrane - that forms and collapses in response to changes in pH. The system comprises a solution containing a molecule with two 'tails', each of which can form reversible covalent bonds with another molecule.