Thermomechanic-electrical coupling in phospholipid monolayers near the critical point

Lipid monolayers have been shown to represent a powerful tool in studying mechanical and thermodynamic properties of lipid membranes as well as their interaction with proteins. Using Einstein's theory of fluctuations we here demonstrate that an experimentally derived linear relationship both between transition entropy S and area A as well as between transition entropy and charge q implies a linear relationships between compressibility kappa(T), heat capacity c(pi), thermal expansion coefficient alpha(T), and electric capacity C-T. We demonstrate that these couplings have strong predictive power as they allow calculating electrical and thermal properties from mechanical measurements. The precision of the prediction increases as the critical point T-C is approached.