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Carbon nanotubes as templates for polymerized lipid assemblies

Nature Nanotechnology volume 3, pages 743–748 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Amphiphilic molecules—molecules that have both hydrophobic and hydrophilic properties—can self-assemble in water to form diverse structures such as micelles, vesicles and tubes1,2,3, and these nanostructures can be used for delivering drugs4,5, stabilizing membrane proteins6 or as nanoreactors7. We have previously shown that lipids can self-organize on the surface of single-walled carbon nanotubes into regular ring-shaped assemblies8. Here we show that these lipid assemblies can be polymerized and isolated from the nanotube template by application of an electric field. We also demonstrate that these assemblies are monodispersed, water-soluble, and can dissolve various hydrophobic rylene dyes, fullerenes and membrane proteins. The stability of these constructs and their diverse applications will be useful in the fields of cosmetics, medicine and material sciences.

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Figure 1: Polymerization of the ring-shaped nano-constructs on the surface of SWNTs.
Figure 2: Separating the nano-constructs from the surface of the SWNTs.
Figure 3: Solubilizing hydrophobic rylene dyes in the nano-constructs.
Figure 4: Solubilizing fullerenes using the nano-constructs.
Figure 5: Solubilizing membrane proteins in the nano-constructs.

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Author notes

  1. Cédric Thauvin and Stéphane Rickling: These authors contributed equally to this work.

  2. Stéphane Meunier: Deceased 2 June 2007. This report is dedicated to the memory of Charles Mioskowski who initiated this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Synthèse Bio-Organique, CNRS-ULP UMR7175/LC1, Faculté de Pharmacie, Université Louis Pasteur, 74 Route du Rhin, Illkirch, 67401, BP 24, France

    Cédric Thauvin, Stéphane Rickling, Stéphane Meunier & Charles Mioskowski

  2. Département de Biologie et Génomique Structurale, INSERM-U596, CNRS-ULP UMR7104, Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Illkirch, F-67400, France

    Patrick Schultz

  3. Département Récepteurs et Protéines Membranaires, CNRS-ULP UMR7175/LC1, Ecole Supérieure de Biotechnologies de Strasbourg, Boulevard Sébastien Brant, Illkirch, 67412, France

    Hervé Célia

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Contributions

P.S. performed the TEM experiments. H.C. performed the protein solubilization experiments. S.M. and C.M. conceived and designed the experiments.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Charles Mioskowski.

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Competing interests

S. R., P. S. and C. M. have filed a patent application on the process described in this work.

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Thauvin, C., Rickling, S., Schultz, P. et al. Carbon nanotubes as templates for polymerized lipid assemblies. Nature Nanotech 3, 743–748 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2008.318

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