Eur. Phys. J. E (2005) 18: 273-278
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/e2005-00028-7

Regular Articles

Electric field unbinding of solid-supported lipid multilayers

¹ Institut für Röntgenphysik, Geiststraße 11, 37073, Göttingen, Germany
² Max-Planck-Institut für Kolloid- und Grenzflächenforschung, 14424, Potsdam, Germany

^* e-mail: dcconsta@ens-lyon.fr

Received: 10 May 2005
Published online: 18 October 2005

Abstract

We studied by X-ray reflectivity the behaviour of fully hydrated solid-supported lipid multilayers under the influence of a transverse electric field, under conditions routinely used in the electroformation process. The kinetics of sample loss (unbinding) was measured as a function of the amplitude and frequency of the applied field by monitoring the integrated intensity of the Bragg peaks. We also performed a time-resolved analysis of the intensity of the first Bragg peak and characterized the final state of the sample.