Molecular Coatings and Supported Lipid Bilayers
The diffusion of molecules through lipid bilayers is important in biological systems and also in applications such as devising selective ultrathin films for use in micro sensing of anti-bacterial peptides. We have a significant effort in studying supported lipid bilayers (biomembranes) on solid surfaces as model biomembranes. The biomembranes can be composed of membrane lipids, cholesterol and other species and are deposited on a surface. We have studied the corrosive effects of chemicals on the stability of supported bilayers on flat substrates. Recently, we have begun to study layer-by-layer coatings and lipid bilayers on single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNT). The aim of this work is to device nanosensors on SWCNT to detect biological compounds. In collaboration with Prof. Palazoglu, we have pioneered the use of wavelet functions to analyze atomic force microscopy images on the nanoscale, including soft materials in water. We have been able to extract data from AFM images that were not recognized from visual observations.