Interfacial tension of phosphatidylcholine-phosphatidylserine system in bilayer lipid membrane

The effect of pH of electrolyte solution on the interfacial tension of lipid membrane formed of phosphatidylcholine (PC, lecithin)-phosphatidylserine (PS) system was studied. In this article, three models describing the H+ and OH− ions adsorption in the bilayer lipid surface are presented. In Model I and Model II, the surface is continuous with uniformly distributed functional groups constituting the centres of H+ and OH− ions adsorption while in the other the surface is built of lipid molecules, free or with attached H+ and OH− ions. In these models contribution of the individual lipid molecule forms to interfacial tension of the bilayer were assumed to be additive. In Model III the adsorption of the H+ and OH− ions at the PC-PS bilayer surface was described in terms of the Gibbs isotherm. Theoretical equations are derived to describe this dependence in the whole pH range.