Influence of dissolved air on the adsorption properties and stability of vesicles on various surfaces

Abstract

Large unilamellar vesicles were prepared for adsorption on quartz crystal surfaces coated with gold, mercaptoundecanoic acid, or octadecanethiol self-assembled monolayers. The adsorption of the vesicles onto these surfaces decreases the resonance frequency of the quartz crystals. We found that frequency changes due to vesicle adsorption were much lower in degassed than in air-rich water. Further, the vesicles adsorbed in air-rich water desorbed when the medium was replaced with degassed water, indicating that the presence of dissolved air in water played a key role in the adsorption and stability of vesicles. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4758487]