Given the projected massive presence of redox-active nanomaterials in the next generation of consumer electronics and electric vehicle batteries, they are likely to eventually come in contact with cell membranes, with biological consequences that are currently not known. Here, we present nonlinear optical studies to address the role of ion dissolution from the nanoscale redox active materials. Our results indicate that while LiCoO2 nanosheets having positive ζ-potentials induce changes in lipid alignment and interleaflet composition in supported lipid bilayers formed from zwitterionic and anionic lipids, aqueous Li+ and Co2+ ions alone alter the compositional asymmetry of the two membrane leaflets at 10 times higher concentrations than those that are released from LiCoO2 nanosheets in bulk solution. This finding provides an estimate for the dissolved ion concentration in the bilayer-nanosheet gap. The insight that LiCoO2 nanosheets induce alterations to the compositional asymmetry in idealized model membranes through an ion dissolution mechanism may represent an important step towards designing new materials with reduced environmental impacts.

Alteration of membrane compositional asymmetry by LiCoO2 nanosheets

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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