Vol. 133, No. 2, 1985 December 17, 1985 BIOCHEMICAL AND BlOPHYSlCAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS Pages 740-744 Unique Electronic Property of a Langmuir-Blodgett Film of Dioleyl Lecithin Deposited on a Porous Membrane Kenichi Yoshikawal, Tesuyuki Omochil, Yumiko Kuroda Tos$io Ishii', and Keiji Iriyama 1College of General Education, University of Tokushima, Minami-Josanjima, Tokushima 770, Japan 2School of Dental Medicine, Tsurumi University, 2-l-3 Tsurumi, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama 230, Japan 3Central Research Laboratory, Jikei University School of Medicine, 3-25-8 Nishi-Shinbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105, Japan Received October 30, 1985 SUMMARY: The current-controlled voltage characteristics across a Langmuir-Blodgett film of dioleyl lecithin deposited on a fine-pore membrane between equimolar aqueous solutions of NaCl and KC1 were studied. This membrane was found to exhibit the properties of switching and differential negative-resistance. These unique electronic properties are interesting in relation to excitable phenomena in biomembranes. 0 1985 Academic Press, Inc. Excitability is one of the most important properties of cell membranes. Though there is much literature on electrical phenomena associated with electrical excitation of biological membranes, the physicochemical mechanisms of these phenomena are not yet clear. Investigations on 'self-excitable' artificial membranes are thus important in understanding the mechanism of excitation in biological systems. However, there are very few reports on this phenomenon in artificial membranes (l-5). Recently we showed that sustained rhythmic oscillations of electrical potential occurred spontaneously across a fine-pore membrane doped with glycerol-a-monooleate (6), glycerol trioleate (7), or sorbitan monooleate (Span-80) 0006-291X/85 $1.50 Copyright 0 1985 by Academic Press, Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. 740