Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

920

Date

2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Physics

Concentration

Materials Science

Committee Chair

Mohamed Laradji

Committee Member

Sanjay Mishra

Committee Member

Firouzeh Sabri

Abstract

Analyzing the interaction between the lipid membranes and nanoparticles helps to determine beneficial and harmful effects of nanoparticles on cells. Since the point of entry of cells is their plasma membrane, interactions between nanorods and lipid membranes were studied using molecular dynamics simulations. The effect of nanorods on membrane morphology was investigated systematically as a function of nanorods interaction with the lipid membrane, their surface coverage and number surface density. Our results indicate that when adsorbed on the membrane, the nanorods may cluster into chains and may lead to strong membrane deformations due to curvature driven interaction between nanorods. At particular nanorod-lipid interaction, single nanorod internalizes into the membrane via endocytosis. This happens to minimize the energy cost due to high bending of the membrane. At high nanorods' density and large nanorods' size it was found that the nanorods lead to membrane lysis which can be attributed to high surface coverage of nanorods.

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.

Download

Share

COinS