Electrochemical investigations on lipid cubic phases

Sammanfattning: Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) was used to develop a novel methodology for studying ionic interaction with lipids arranged in a lipid cubic phase (LCP). Studying different types of ions, both cations and anions, validated the method. A free-standing LCP membrane was formed between two cell compartments and impedance experiments were carried out in a 2-electrode setup to estimate dielectric properties of the membrane, exposed to the following electrolyte solutions at different concentrations: KCl, CsBr, CaCl2, MgCl2, CsCl, NaCl, NaOAc and NaTryptophan. Two different LCP were used in this setup, i.e: Monoloein/water and the ternary system of monoolein/dioleoylphosphatidylcholine/water (MO/DOPC/H2O). SAXRD measurements were performed to determine the space group of the cubic phase and confirm the stability of the LCP during measurements.Membrane resistances and capacitances were found from equivalent circuit fitting to the impedance data. The membrane resistance was shown to be related to ionic interaction with the lipid head group in the water channels of the LCP. Membrane capacitance were correlating to condensing and swelling effect of LCP due to the exposure of ions. The results correlated well with the SAXRD results and earlier published data.The results also indicate that these membranes become less permeable to ions as they increase in size as well as in charge or polarity. Cyclic voltammetry was used to study the applications of a LCP for modification of the bioanode in a biofuel cell. The monoolein cubic phase was used to host Glucose oxidase (GOx) and a freely diffusing ferrocene carboxylate was used as mediator. The supported cubic phase had an intrinsic resistance in the same order of magnitude as the freestanding MO-LCP membrane as measured with EIS.