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Nonequlibrium Statistical Mechanics of An Ensemble of Vesicles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2011

Leonardo Golubović*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506
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Abstract

We investigate far-from-equilibrium dynamics of a polydisperse ensemble of vesicles ( such as liposomes). For that purpose, we construct of a Smoluchowsky-type transport equation incorporating vesicle diffusion and the processes of vesicle fusions and fissions. This approach is used to study the time evolution of an initially monodisperse vesicle ensemble and its important quantities such as the internal aqueous, encapsulated volume. We find three stages of the evolution: (i) an early stage during which EV remains nearly constant, followed by (ii) a stage with a rapid decay of the EV, and, finally (iii) a late stage in which the ensemble approaches the thermodynamic equilibrium. In the far-fromequilibrium stages (i) and (ii), the vesicle ensemble is a “two-fluid” system composed of a polydisperse fluid of small, nearly equilibrated vesicles, coexisting with a fluid of nearly monodisperse vesicles which size evolves due to evaporation-recondensation of the small vesicles. Our picture agrees with experimental data on the EV of lecithin liposomes.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1996

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References

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