DOMAIN SHAPES AND MONOLAYER STRUCTURES OF TRIPLE-CHAIN PHOSPHOLIPIDS ON WATER

Two triple-chain phospholipid isomers were investigated at the air-water interface by means of fluorescence microscopy and grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GID). The two lipids differ only in the position of the branched chain at the glycerol backbone. Fluorescence microscopy shows different domain shapes. In one system the domain boundary is smooth, and the other system shows sharp-edged domains. In the case of dendritic domains the chains are more tilted, the deviation from hexagonal symmetry is more pronounced and hence the lattice anisotropy is larger.