Fractal Growth of Crystalline Phospholipid Domains in Monomolecular Layers
- 16 June 1986
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review Letters
- Vol. 56 (24), 2633-2636
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.56.2633
Abstract
Self-similar structures of single-crystalline domains in lipid monolayers at the air-water interface are observed after a stepwise increase of the surface pressure. It is shown that these fractal structures with Hausdorff dimensions of anneal because of the influence of edge tension on time scales of minutes. The results can be understood within the framework of diffusion-limited aggregation taking into account constitutional supercooling due to different miscibilities for impurities in solid and in fluid lipid phases.
Keywords
This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit:
- Fractal growth viscous fingers: quantitative characterization of a fluid instability phenomenonNature, 1985
- Fluorescence microscope to observe dynamical processes in monomolecular layers at the air/water interfaceReview of Scientific Instruments, 1984
- On the nature of the lipid monolayer phase transitionJournal de Physique Lettres, 1984
- Translational diffusion in phospholipid monolayers measured by fluorescence microphotolysis.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 1983
- A Fluorescence Microscopic Study Concerning the Phase Diagram of PhospholipidsBerichte der Bunsengesellschaft für physikalische Chemie, 1983
- Diffusion-limited aggregationPhysical Review B, 1983
- Theory of dendritic growth—I. Elements of a stability analysisActa Metallurgica, 1978