Coarse grained molecular dynamics and theoretical studies of carbon nanotubes entering cell membrane

• 来源期刊: 力学学报（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2008,（2）
• 页码范围: 161-169
• 页数: 9页
• 语种: 英文
• DOI: 10.1007/s10409-008-0131-0

摘要

Motivated by recent experimental observations that carbon nanotubes (CNT) can enter animal cells, here we conduct coarse grained molecular dynamics and theore-tical studies of the intrinsic interaction mechanisms between CNT's and lipid bilayer. The results indicate that CNT-cell interaction is dominated by van der Waals and hydropho-bic forces, and that CNT's with sufficiently small radii can directly pierce through cell membrane while larger tubes tend to enter cell via a wrapping mechanism. Theoretical models are proposed to explain the observed size effect in transition of entry mechanisms.