Effects of external electric fields on the self-assembly of phospholipids/water mixtures—coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations

Abstract

Coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations were conducted to study the effects of external electric fields on the self-assembly of phospholipids. The results show that an applied electric field is able to lead to an inverted cylinder self-assembled phase, while the self-assembled phase is the lamellar structure in the absence of applied electric field. The inverted cylinder self-assembled phase is metastable even if the applied field is removed after its formation, thereby suggesting an effective way to design and fabricate self-assembled phases of phospholipids in water by applying an electric field.