Abstract
The temperature and CaCl2 concentration dependence of the lamellar repeat distance of a dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) aqueous solution was investigated by small-angle X-ray and neutron scattering, and neutron spin echo. At certain CaCl2 concentrations, the repeat distance in the liquid-crystalline phase tends to increase up to infinity while that in the gel phase has an upper limit. This behavior is attributable to the fact that the steric repulsion of lipid bilayers due to the membrane undulation in the liquid-crystalline phase is larger than that in the gel phase. The free-energy calculation suggested that the cooperation of the short-range electrostatic interaction and the long-range steric interaction is the origin of the increase in the repeat distance in the liquid-crystalline phase, and it can be the origin of an “unbinding transition”.
