Dynamics of Micelle Formation from Mixed Lipid Droplets

Amphiphilic lipid molecules can form various micelles depending on not only their molecular composition but also their self‐assembly pathway. In this work, coarse‐grained molecular dynamics simulations have been applied to study the micellization behaviors of mixed dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC)/hexadecylphosphocholine (HPC) droplets. By varying DPPC/HPC composition and the size of lipid droplets, various micelles such as spherical and nonspherical (oblate or prolate) vesicles, disk‐like micelles, double or single ring‐like and worm‐like micelles were observed. It is found that the lipid droplet as an initial state favors forming vesicles and ring‐like micelles due to in situ micellization. Our simulation results demonstrate that using special initial conditions combined with various molecular compositions is an effective way to tune lipid micellar structure.