Flexoelectricity and the entropic force between fluctuating fluid membranes

Revisiting the entropic force between fluctuating biological membranes

The complex interplay between the various attractive and repulsive forces that mediate between biological membranes governs an astounding array of biological functions: cell adhesion, membrane fusion, self-assembly, binding-unbinding transition among others. In this work, the entropic repulsive force between membranes—which originates due to thermally excited fluctuations—is critically reexamin...

Entropic force between membranes reexamined.

L ipid bilayers serve as model surfaces that are often used to understand the behavior of actual cell membranes. Cell adhesion (1, 2), membrane fusion (1), binding-unbinding transition (3), self-assembly, and related phenomena govern an astounding array of biological functions; for example, sperm-egg fusion is the basis of mammalian reproducion (1). These phenomena are dictated by a complex int...

Entropic interaction between fluctuating twin boundaries

Nanotwinned metals have opened up exciting avenues for the design of high-strength, high-ductility materials owing to the extraordinary properties of twin boundaries. The recent advances in the fabrication of nanostructured materials with twin lamella on the order of a mere few atomic layers call for a closer examination of the stability of these structural motifs, especially at high temperatur...

Calculation of a fluctuating entropic force by phase space sampling.

A polymer chain pinned in space exerts a fluctuating force on the pin point in thermal equilibrium. The average of such fluctuating force is well understood from statistical mechanics as an entropic force, but little is known about the underlying force distribution. Here, we introduce two phase space sampling methods that can produce the equilibrium distribution of instantaneous forces exerted ...

Entropic forces between fluid layers.