Deformation theory of polymersome magneto-valves

We have extended the spontaneous curvature model of the equilibrium vesicle shapes by adding the interaction between magnetic field and the constituent molecules to investigate the mechanism implied in the phenomena of the reversible deformation of an artificial stomatocyte, which has been discovered in the experiment by P. G. van Rhee et al. (Nat. Commun., 5 (2014) 5010). The quantitative relation between the size of the mouth of the stomatocyte and the external homogeneous magnetic field has been revealed. Our theoretical results, including the shape of the neck, shows good agreement with the experimental ones. It must be pointed that the artificial stomatocyte has a great potential for the application of capturing and targeted releasing of drug according to the mechanism presented here.