Self-Spreading of Lipid Bilayer on a Hydrophobic Surface Made by Self-Assembled Monolayer with Short Alkyl Chain.

Behaviors of self-spreading of lipid bilayer membrane on a glass surface modified with self-assembled monolayer (SAM) with short alkyl chain were observed with fluorescence microscopy. Hydrophobic surface made by SAM was found to hamper the self-spreading phenomenon but the lipid bilayer spread on a hydrophilic one where SAM was decomposed by oxidation. On a binary surface having a hydrophobic region and a hydrophilic one, the lipid bilayer spread on the hydrophilic region but it stopped at the boundary of the hydrophobic region.