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For a phospholipid, the critical packing parameter is given by: $$P=\frac{v}{a_0l_c}$$ And I know that

  • $v$ is the volume of the hydrocarbon tail.
  • $l_c$ is the critical length of the hydrocarbon chains.
  • $a_0$ is the optimum surface area of the head group.

But what do these actually mean?

For example what is the volume of the hydrocarbon tail, since it can't be simply the volume of all the atoms that make it up else this would be negligible? What is the critical length of the hydrocarbon tail? And What is the optimum surface area of the head group?

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Following image from (Salim et al 2014) will makes thing clear to you,

enter image description here

When they say volume, it is volume of shape of lipid. Shape can be determined by many factors as described here. Following is modified images from (Sprong et al 2001) which will tell you how change differ in general. Here are examples of few common lipids.

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ +1 Wrt the second figure: perhaps you can also say what these phospholipids are (expand the abbreviations). It would be useful. $\endgroup$
    – WYSIWYG
    Commented Oct 19, 2015 at 7:16
  • $\begingroup$ LPC: lyso-Phosphatidylcholine, PC : Phosphatidylcholine and PE: phosphatidylethanolamine $\endgroup$
    – Dexter
    Commented Oct 25, 2015 at 18:21

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