Modelling encapsulation of gold and silver nanoparticles inside lipid nanotubes

•Suction energies for gold and silver nanoparticles into lipid nanotubes are studied.•Lennard-Jones potential and the continuous approximation are utilised.•Surface and volume integrations are undertaken to evaluate analytical expressions.•We predict the acceptance of gold and silver nanoparticles inside lipid nanotubes.

Lipid nanotubes are of particular interest for use as a template to create various one-dimensional nanostructures and as a carrier for drug and gene delivery. Understanding the encapsulation process is therefore crucial for such development. This paper models the interactions between lipid nanotubes and spheres of gold and silver nanoparticles and determines the critical dimension of lipid nanotubes that maximises the interaction with the nanoparticles. Our results confirm the acceptance of gold and silver nanoparticles inside lipid nanotubes. Further, we find that the lipid nanotube of radius approximately 10.23 nm is most favourable to encapsulate both types of nanoparticles.