Interactions of curcumin-coated silver nanoparticles with sparsely tethered bilayer membranes containing an ion-gate-forming peptide

/Ag redox signal indicates that silver species or derived electroactive ions penetrate the phospholipid bilayer. This process is likely driven either by the formation of neutral, passive, permeating sub-nanometer AgCl nanocrystals or by localised passive diffusion of free silver ions interacting with transient membrane boundary faults, leading to localised membrane disruption. This result provides new insights into the mechanical stability of phospholipid bilayers in the presence of metallic nanomaterials.