Electrolyte-lipid semiconductor

In the perpendicular direction, there may be conduction along the polar end group or by change transfer between the hydrocarbon chains. Proton conductivity is also a possibility. No gas evaluation and no increase in resistance from polarization effects were noted, however, in our preliminary experiments. Recently we have started some studies on electrolyte-lipid semiconductor structures. We observed, for example, interesting differences in the effect of divalent ions on different lipid mono-layers (55). 

We believe that the type of investigations that are outlined briefly above provide interesting new information on the properties of lipids from both technical and biophysical points of view. Measurements on electrolyte-lipid semiconductor systems should provide useful information complementary to that obtained from BLM investigations. Furthermore, the gas sensitivity of the electrical properties of lipids could be utilized in practical devices. 

In this section we discuss five different materials as examples with different charging mechanisms mercury, silver iodide, oxides, mica, and semiconductors. Mercury is one example of an inert metal. Silver iodide is an example of a weakly soluble salt. Oxides are an important class of minerals. For most biological substances like proteins or lipids a similar charging process dominates. Mica is an example for a clay mineral. In addition, it is widely used as a substrate in surface force measurements and microscopy. We also included a general discussion of semiconductors because the potential in the semiconductor can be described similarly to the diffuse layer in electrolytes and there is an increasing effort to make a direct contact between a liquid or a living cell and a semiconductor. 

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