Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

916

Sudhir Upreti

Date

2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Physics

Concentration

General Physics

Committee Chair

Mohamed Laradji

Committee Member

Sanjay Mishra

Committee Member

Muhammad S Jahan

Abstract

Potential applications of nanoparticles in various field including medicine and industries demand careful investigations of the interaction between nanoparticles and the plasma membrane and the resulting effect this has on the structural, mechanical and thermal properties of the plasma membrane. Furthermore, understanding the interactions between nanoparticles and bio membranes will allow us to design nanoparticles for optimal transmembrane transport. Using large-scaleLangevin molecular dynamics simulations, we systematically investigated the adsorption of spherical nanoparticles on lipid membranes, their effect on the morphological changes of the membrane, and the clustering of the nanoparticles. Our study is performed with changing the parameters such as the diameter of the nanoparticle, the strength of their interaction with the biomembrane and the surface coverage of the nanoparticles. We observed endocytosis in the membrane for single spherical nanoparticle at high interaction potential and small radius and relatively low interaction potential and high radius. Our results also indicate that for high nanoparticle density and for strong adsorption interactions the nanoparticles can lead to membrane lysis. However, for moderate adsorption interaction, the nanoparticles form long-lived linear clusters that are due to an effective curvature-driven attraction between the nanoparticles.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

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