This
work reports a new method of fabricating lipid nanotubules
using ultrasonic Stokes drag force in theory and experiment. Ultrasonic
Stokes drag force generated using a planar piezoelectric ultrasonic
transducer in a remotely controllable way is introduced. When ultrasonic
Stokes drag force is applied on lipid vesicles, the lipid nanotubules
attached can be dragged out from the lipid film. In order to demonstrate
the formation mechanism of the lipid nanotubules produced by ultrasonic
drag force clearly, a theoretical kinetic model is developed. In the
experiments, the lipid nanotubules can be rapidly and efficiently
fabricated using this ultrasonic transducer both in deionized water
and NaCl solutions with different concentrations. The stretching speed
of the lipid nanotubules can reach 33 μm/s, approximately 10
times faster than that of the existing methods. The formed lipid nanotubules
have a diameter of 600 ± 100 nm (>80%). The length can reach
the millimeter level. This work provided a remotely controllable,
highly efficient, high-velocity, and solution environment-independent
approach for fabricating lipid nanotubules.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.