0000000000481983
AUTHOR
Enrico Scalas
Influence of a hydrophilic spacer on the structure of a phospholipid monolayer
We present the results of thermodynamical and X-ray grazing incidence diffraction experiments performed on Langmuir monolayers of ether lipids with hydrophilic spacers between the glycerol backbone and the phosphatidylcholine head group: DHPC, DH-E01-PC, and DH-E02-PC. As a spacer the oxy-ethylene group is used, which is a typical hydrophilic unit of non-ionic tensides. It turns out that the introduction of the hydrophilic spacers leads to a fluidization of the monolayer and reduces the tilt angle of the chains.
Cluster growth with long-range interactions
Abstract Growth models in which the morphology depends on interactions of the type V(r) = C r n are presented. The growth algorithms are generalizations of DLA. The particles diffuse on a triangular lattice and eventually either stick to the cluster or are lost. Several processes are simulated in this way: in one case only pure sticking is taken into account, in another case evaporation and rearrangement are also allowed to occur. In the former case (with attractive interactions) the clusters exhibit a highly symmetric shape (a sixfold star) whose detailed structure depends on n , C kT , and time. In the latter case (studied with repulsive dipolar interactions) the tendency to ramification …
Chirality effects on 2D phase transitions
Monolayers of the racemate and pure enantiomers of 1-hexadecyl-glycerol were investigated by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GID) at 5 and 20 °C on compression from 0 mN m−1 to pressures greater than 30 mN m−1. The racemate lattice is centred-rectangular for both temperatures at all investigated pressures. However, at both temperatures, there is a sharp phase transition from a low-pressure phase, in which the molecules are tilted towards nearest neighbours (NN) and the distortion azimuth also points towards NN, to a high-pressure phase, in which the molecules are tilted towards next-nearest neighbours (NNN) and an NNN-distorted lattice is observed. At 5 °C, the transition pressure is 1…
Head-group variations and monolayer structures of diol derivatives
Monolayers of 5 chemically modified diols varying the headgroup (nonadecane-1,2-diol (C1), hexadecyl-propane-1,3-diol (C2), hexadecyl-oxy-propane-1,2-diol (C3), hexadecyl-oxy-butane-1,2-diol (C4), hexadecanoyl-oxy-propane-1,2-diol (C5)) have been investigated by grazing incidence x-ray diffraction at 20°C and at different lateral pressures. C1 and C5 exhibit a centred-rectangular lattice with NN (nearest neighbour) tilt and NN distortion directions. In the case of C1 on increasing the lateral pressure the distortion changes to NNN (next-nearest neighbour direction) without a change in tilt direction (NN). This behaviour could not be observed for the other compounds. C3 and C4 display a phas…
Grazing-Incidence X-ray Diffraction Study of Octadecanoic Acid Monolayers
We report the observation of X-ray scattering profiles from monolayers of octadecanoic acid in the vicinity of room temperature and evidence for the existence near room temperature of all four hexatic rotator phases L2d, Ov, L‘1, and LS, which differ in the details of their molecular tilt. While the incontrovertible triple-reflection signature of the chiral L‘1 phase was not observed, we propose that the previously reported rapid annealing behavior in this phase can lead to the disappearance of one, and in some cases two, of the three peaks.