Droplet-supported liquid-liquid lateral phase separation as a step to floating protein heterostructures

Droplet-supported liquid-liquid lateral phase separation as a step to floating protein heterostructures

Blog Article

Abstract Liquid-liquid phase separation plays an important role in many natural and technological processes.Herein, we implement lateral microphase separation at the surface of oil Dryer Door Button micro-droplets suspended in water to prepare a range of discrete floating protein/polymer continuous two-dimensional (2D) heterostructures with variable interfacial domain structures and dynamics.We show that gel-like domains of bovine serum albumin (BSA) co-exist with fluid-like polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) regions at the oil droplet surface to produce floating heterostructures comprising a 2D phase-separated protein mesh or an array of discrete mobile protein rafts depending on the conditions employed.Enzymes are embedded in the discontinuous BSA domains to produce droplet-supported microphase-separated 2D reaction scaffolds that can be tuned for interfacial catalysis.

Taken together, our work has general implications for the structural and functional augmentation Accessories - Bags of oil droplet interfaces and contributes to the surface engineering and functionality of droplet-based micro-reactors.