Electrostatic control of lipid bilayer self-spreading using a nanogap gate on a solid support.

We have demonstrated for the first time that the self-spreading of supported lipid bilayers can be controlled by the temporal switching of an electric field applied between nanogap electrodes. To account for this phenomenon, we propose an electrostatic trapping model in which an electric double layer plays an important role. The validity of this mechanism was verified by the dependence of self-spreading on the nanogap width and the ionic concentration of the electrolyte. Our results provide a promising tool for the temporal and spatial control of lipid bilayer formation for nanobio devices.