An overview of neutron scattering and molecular dynamics simulation studies of phospholipid bilayers in room-temperature ionic liquid/water solutions

Lipid bilayers represent the basic component of biomembranes, and, as such, provide an idealised model for a first assessment of the effect of third species on living cells. Then, neutron scattering in its several variants provides a palette of powerful methods to trace the observed effects down to their microscopic origin. The task can be greatly eased by the insight provided by atomistic and coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations. An overview of this combined approach to investigate structural and dynamical changes in phospholipid bilayers due to the addition of organic ionic compounds of the room temperature ionic liquid family to the water solution wetting the bilayers is presented here. The results of studies along these lines might greatly impact the development of biomedical, nanotechnology and sensing applications of ionic liquids compounds.