Eur. Phys. J. E (2012) 35: 49
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2012-12049-2

Regular Article

Phase-field model for the morphology of monolayer lipid domains

¹ Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and UPF, Barcelona, Spain
² Departament d’Estructura i Constituents de la Matèria, Universitat de Barcelona, E-08028, Barcelona, Spain
³ Departamento de Bioquímica, Facultad de Biología, Universidad Complutense, 28040, Madrid, Spain
⁴ Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (CSIC), 28049, Madrid, Spain

^* e-mail: felix.campelo@crg.cat

Received: 17 June 2011
Revised: 8 November 2011
Accepted: 1 June 2012
Published online: 21 June 2012

Abstract

Phase-separated domains exist in multicomponent lipid monolayers and bilayers. We present here a phase-field model that takes into account the competition between lipid dipole-dipole interactions and line tension to define the domain morphology. A dynamic equation for the phase-field is solved numerically showing stationary non-circular shapes like starfish shapes. This phase-field model could be applied to study the dynamic properties of complex problems like phase segregation in pulmonary surfactant membranes and films.