Spontaneous Formation of Giant Unilamellar Vesicles from Microdroplets of a Polyion Complex by Thermally Induced Phase Separation

Abstract

Water pump: Polyion complex (PIC) vesicles are spontaneously formed from PIC microdroplets, which are formed by mixing cationic and anionic polymers (see picture). The formation process can be reversibly controlled by local heating with a focused infrared laser that triggers microphase separation and subsequent water influx. The size of the resulting giant unilamellar vesicles is determined by the initial size of the PIC droplets.