We present the first direct imaging of a new hydrogel of lipid membranes containing polymer lipids. Freeze-fracture electron microscopy shows unambiguously that the hydrogel’s surprisingly large viscoelasticity is explained by a novel defect topology of interconnections between defects. The defects are spherulites with high membrane curvatures which are either isotropic or cylinderlike. A lower...

We investigate the lateral dynamics in a purely viscous lipid membrane which is supported by a thin polymer sheet (polymer-supported membrane). The generalized frequency-dependent mobility tensor of the polymer-supported membrane is obtained by taking into account the viscoelasticity of the polymer sheet. Due to its viscoelasticity, the cross-correlation functions of two particles embedded in t...