Figure 5.

(a) Schematic of the tBLM system used in (b) and (c). A gold surface is modified with a mixed self-assembled monolayer containing cholesterol groups. The surface is then incubated with vesicles made up of Lipid Mix 1 (POPC:DOPS:cholesterol at 15:1:4 weight ratio), which assembles into a planar membrane across the gold surface, (b) QCM-D plots of a tBLM in DMEM after additions of 10 and 100 μg/ml of silica NPs (dispersed in DMEM) and after washes with DMEM at times indicated by the arrows. (c) Impedance spectra plots (normalised admittance) of a tBLM in DMEM before and after incubation with 10 and 100 μg/ml of silica NPs at 21°C for the indicated time.