We investigate the miscibility phase behavior of lipid monolayers containing a wide variety of sterols. Six of the sterols satisfy a definition from an earlier study of "membrane-active sterols" in bilayers (cholesterol, epicholesterol, lathosterol, dihydrocholesterol, ergosterol, and desmosterol), and six do not (25-hydroxycholesterol, lanosterol, androstenolone, coprostanol, cholestane, and c...

The miscibility-immiscibility phase transition in binary Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) can be controlled by a coupling between the two components. Here we propose a new scheme that uses coupling-induced pattern formation to test the Kibble-Zurek mechanism (KZM) of topological-defect formation in a quantum phase transition. For a binary BEC in a ring trap we find that the number of domains fo...

[1] Using first-principles molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, we study the solubility of argon in molten iron at high pressures and temperatures. In particular we explore whether the low pressure immiscibility of liquid Fe and Ar persists to high pressure (130 GPa) and temperature (4500K), or whether they mix. Starting from a variety of Fe/ Ar mixtures we find that they always separate rapidl...

The nucleolus and other ribonucleoprotein (RNP) bodies are membrane-less organelles that appear to assemble through phase separation of their molecular components. However, many such RNP bodies contain internal subcompartments, and the mechanism of their formation remains unclear. Here, we combine in vivo and in vitro studies, together with computational modeling, to show that subcompartments w...

Hybrid surfactants were generated through the simple mixing of fluorocarbon and hydrocarbon gemini surfactants in aqueous solutions at 25°C. Disulfide exchange between the disulfide in the spacer chain occurred in the mixed micelles. However, the generation of hybrid gemini surfactants was particularly inhibited by the addition of salt. The suppression of the electrostatic repulsion between the...

Directed co-assembly of polymer-conjugated cyclic peptide nanotubes (CPNs) and block copolymers in thin films is a viable approach to fabricate sub-nanometer porous membranes without synthesizing nanotubes with identical length and vertical alignment. Here we show that the process is pathway dependent and successful co-assembly requires eliminating CPNs larger than 100 nm in solution. Optimizin...

The structural basis of immiscibility of stearic acid (SA) in two unsaturated lipids at room temperature was examined. A 5% SA mixture in octadec-9-enoic acid (OA) is cloudy; a 5% SA solution in the methyl ester of OA (MeOA) is fully miscible. At 10% SA in MeOA, a clear and immiscible phase formed. The composition of this immiscible phase however was not 10% SA, but 25% SA. Adding additional SA...