Experimental studies of graphene transport in lung-surfactant monolayers

This presentation will include recent experimental results characterizing the transport of graphene particles of controlled size and shape in monolayers of the lung surfactant dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC). This work seeks to improve our understanding of the way 2D particles, or particles of atomic-scale thickness, interact with certain biological membranes composed of lipid molecules. As use and availability of 2D particles increases in various industries, their interaction with biological membranes will likely increase, and the consequences of those interactions will depend on the way they interact at a microstructural level. Although there are many molecular dynamics (MD) studies focused on such systems, experimental results are lacking to corroborate MD results due to the challenge of experimentally studying these nano-scale systems. We have developed an experimental platform for fabricating graphene particles of controlled size and shape and introducing them to a DPPC monolayer where the interactions can be observed with epifluorescence microscopy. Results of measurements of mean-squared displacement (MSD) of graphene particles as a function of DPPC area coverage will be shown, and the implications of the MSD measurements on the graphene-DPPC interactions will be discussed.