Lipid Nanotubes as Scaffold Toward Construction of One-Dimensional Nanostructures

Lipid molecules self-assembling in liquid media can yield tubular structures with a variety of applications in chemistry, biochemistry, materials science, and medicine. With highly ordered architecture and precise molecular recognition of the lipid molecules, the elegant hollow cylinders of lipid nanotubes (LNTs) can modulate the nucleation, growth, and deposition of inorganic substances on their external and internal surfaces, in the hollow cylinder, and in the bilayer membrane wall. This review briefly outlines our recent work of the promising applications of LNTs as scaffold toward construction of diverse 1-D nanostructures including 1-D arrays of quantum dots, complex helical architectures, nanocables, and hybrid nanotubes consisting of functional inorganic nanoparticles embedded in lipid membrane wall.