Role of Electrostatic Interactions for the Domain Shapes of Langmuir Monolayers of Monoglycerol Amphiphiles

Phase behavior of Langmuir monolayers with ionic molecular heads: Molecular simulations

We carried out Monte Carlo simulations in the N,Π,T ensemble of a Langmuir monolayer coarse-grained molecular model. Considering that the hydrophilic groups can be ionized by modulating acid-base interactions, here we study the phase behavior of a model that incorporates the short-range steric and long-range ionic interactions. The simulations were carried out in the reduced temperature range 0.1≤T*<4.0, where there is a competition of these interactions. Different order parameters were calculated and analyzed for several values of the reduced surface pressure in the interval, 1≤Π*≤40. For most of the surface pressures two directions of molecular tilt were found: (i) towards the nearest neighbor (NN) at low temperatures, T*<0.7, and most of the values of Π* and (ii) towards next-nearest neighbors (NNN) in the temperature interval 0.7≤T*<1.1 for Π*<25. We also found the coexistence of the NN and NNN at intermediate temperatures and Π*>25. A low-temperature reentrant disorder-order-disorder transition in the positions of the molecular heads and in the collective tilt of the tails was found for all the surface pressure values. It was also found that the molecular tails arranged forming "rotating patterns" in the temperature interval, 0.5<T*<1.5, at intermediate surface pressures. We estimated the monolayer's surface pressure versus temperature and the temperature versus area per molecule phase diagrams. It was found that the LE↔LC phase transition shifts to smaller temperatures when the molecular heads carry an ion in qualitative agreement with experimental observations of fatty acid monolayers with ionic head groups. Two surface pressure versus area per molecule isotherms were also calculated. At low temperatures near the LC-NN ↔ LC-NNN transitions and at higher temperatures close to the LE ↔ LC transitions. From these isotherms the monolayer's area compression modulus was obtained and its variation ranges in the LE and LC phases were found to be consistent with the experimental values.

Helfrich's concept of intrinsic force and its molecular origin in bilayers and monolayers

Bilayers and monolayers are excellent models of biological membranes. The constituents of the biological membranes such as lipids, cholesterols and proteins are chiral. Chiral molecules are abundant in nature (protein, nucleic acid and lipid). It is obvious that relationship between chirality and morphology (as well as function) of biological membrane is of interest for its fundamental importance and has technological implication regarding various membrane functions. The recent years have witnessed that a number of experimental studies in biomimetic systems have shown fascinating morphologies where chirality of the constituent molecule has decisive influence. Significant progress is made towards the understanding of these systems from the theoretical and computational studies. Helfrich's concept of intrinsic force arising from chirality is a milestone in understanding the biomimetic system such as bilayer and the related concepts, further progresses in molecular understanding made in recent years and experimental studies revealing the influence of chirality on morphology are the focus of the present review. Helfrich's concept of intrinsic force arising due to chirality is useful in understanding two-dimensional bilayers and one-dimensional monolayers and related mimetic systems. Various experimental techniques are used, which can probe the molecular architecture of these mimetic systems at different length scales and both macroscopic (thermodynamic) as well as microscopic (molecular) theories are developed. These studies are aimed to understand the role of chirality in the molecular interaction when the corresponding molecule is present in an aggregate. When one looks into the variety of morphologies exhibited by three-dimensional bilayer and two-dimensional monolayer, the later types of systems are more exotic in the sense that they show more diversity and interesting chiral discrimination. Helfrich's concept of intrinsic force may be considered useful in both cases. The intrinsic force due to chirality is the decisive factor in determining morphology which is explained by molecular approaches. Finally, biological and technological implications of such morphological variations are briefly mentioned.

Limited propagation of lattice distortion in trilayer Langmuir-Blodgett films: correlation with mesoscopic structure

The structure of trilayer Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films on oxidized silicon wafers has been investigated using grazing incidence X-ray diffraction at various incidence angles and atomic force microscopy (AFM). These films are formed by two behenic acid (BA) layers and a third monolayer of amphiphilic molecules having different architectures. These molecules have the same polar head and differ from each other by the chain, either saturated or unsaturated hydrogenated or semi-fluorinated. The structure of the first BA monolayer appears as unchanged in all cases, whereas a condensation of the second BA monolayer is evidenced when the third layer is not formed with the saturated hydrogenated chain. We interpret this condensation as resulting from the mismatch between the lattices of the second BA layer and the external monolayer, possibly associated with the formation of a new monolayer-air interface creating line tension effects. Line tension estimation has also been made from the size of the holes observed in the different LB films.

Revisiting the Brewster Angle Microscopy: the relevance of the polar headgroup

The Brewster Angle Microscopy (BAM) is a powerful microscopy technique allowing the in situ visualization of the morphology of Langmuir monolayers at the air/water interface. The use of the BAM for attaining structural insights in the molecular arrangement of the Langmuir monolayers is widespread. In this review, we examine the reflection of a Langmuir monolayer under a rather different perspective than classical: the influence of the polar headgroup of the amphiphiles in the BAM images is taken into account. The relevance of the polar headgroup as the main cause of the BAM features has been the focus of a reduced number of BAM studies. An emerging experimental and theoretical framework from recent bibliography is discussed. Different theoretical scenarios are considered, concerning the size and absorption of radiation of the polar headgroup. Two qualitative examples showing physical phenomena regarding the reflectivity changes in a BAM experiments are discussed. The anisotropy in the BAM images as inner textures is of special interest. Quantitative structural information of the molecular arrangement of the monolayer is obtained by simulating the textures of the domains observed. The quantitative assessment of the detailed molecular arrangement of the polar headgroup by BAM is highly valuable, as this information can hardly be obtained from other experimental techniques. The procedure for extracting quantitative structural data from the experimental BAM pictures is revised in detail from the recent bibliography for further application of this model to different Langmuir monolayers.

A DMPA Langmuir monolayer study: from gas to solid phase. An atomistic description by molecular dynamics Simulation

In this work, a DMPA Langmuir monolayer at the air/water interface was studied by molecular dynamics simulations. Thus, an atomistic picture of a Langmuir monolayer was drawn from its expanded gas phase to its final solid condensed one. In this sense, some properties of monolayers that were traditionally poorly or even not reproduced in computer simulations, such as lipid domain formation or pressure-area per lipid isotherm, were properly reproduced in this work. Thus, the physical laws that control the lipid domain formation in the gas phase and the structure of lipid monolayers from the gas to solid condensed phase were studied. Thanks to the atomistic information provided by the molecular dynamics simulations, we were able to add valuable information to the experimental description of these processes and to access experimental data related to the lipid monolayers in their expanded phase, which is difficult or inaccessible to study by experimental techniques. In this sense, properties such as lipids head hydration and lipid structure were studied.

Role of dipolar interaction in the mesoscopic domains of phospholipid monolayers: dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine and dipalmitoylphosphatidylethanolamine

The role of dipolar interactions in determining the lipid domain shapes at the air-water interface with a change in the chemical structure of the head groups of lipids is theoretically studied. The phospholipids considered are dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (D,L-DPPC) and dipalmitoylphosphatidylethanolamine (DPPE). Despite closely similar chemical structures, the domains of the two lipids are strikingly different. The DPPC domains exhibit elongated arms, while the DPPE domains are nearly round-shaped. To compare the dipolar repulsions in the domains of the two phospholipids, different energy-minimized conformers of DPPC and DPPE are studied using the semiempirical quantum chemical method (PM3). It is found that the dipole moment of DPPC is significantly larger than that of DPPE. The in-plane and out-of-plane components of the dipole moments are calculated using grazing incidence X-ray diffraction data at different surface pressure values, as used in the experiment. The result indicates that the magnitude of the dipolar interaction is significantly larger in DPPC than that in DPPE over the surface pressure range considered. The enhanced dipolar repulsion corroborates well with the difference in the domain shapes in the two phospholipid monolayers. The larger dipolar repulsion in DPPC leads to development of elongated domain arms, while relatively less dipolar repulsion allows a closed shape of the condensed-phase DPPE domains.

Molecular interactions in amphiphilic assemblies: theoretical perspective

In recent experimental studies, a number of morphological features have been revealed on amphiphilic assemblies that need consideration of the molecular chiral structure and the molecular polarity. Molecular chirality and polarity influence the intermolecular energy profile as a function of the distance and orientation between neighboring molecules in the condensed-phase aggregates of mono- and bilayers. After the experimental information is summarized, related microscopic theoretical works are presented. The molecular theory shows that the mesoscopic chiral shape of the condensed phase can be predicted from the molecular chiral structure studying the intermolecular energy profile. The theoretical insights have implications for related biological systems.

Temperature-dependent phase behavior and the crystal-forming nucleation process of ethyl 4-fluoro-2,3-dihydroxystearate monolayers

The phase behavior of enantiomeric compounds as well as mixtures of enantiopure and racemic diastereomers of ethyl 4-fluoro-2,3-dihydroxystearates has been investigated using surface pressure-area isotherms and Brewster angle microscopy (BAM). All mixtures exhibit a small plateau region within the surface pressure-area isotherm at 20 degrees C, whereas the enantiopure compound shows an isotherm behavior similar to that of fatty acids. Corresponding to the film balance measurements, the BAM images demonstrate different shapes of the domains within the coexistence region of the liquid-condensed/liquid-expanded phase. The domain structures of the monolayers were visualized after Langmuir-Blodgett transfer on mica sheets by scanning force microscopy (SFM). From the SFM images it becomes obvious that small crystallites are formed for all investigated compounds; however, their molecular assembly is diverse for different enantiomers. Variations in the phase behavior can be correlated with interactions between the polar molecular moieties and the subphase and altered intermolecular interactions. Molecular modeling calculations were applied to elucidate the structural organization of these intermolecular interactions. Ab initio calculations of the minima conformers of (S,S,R)- and (S,S,S)-ethyl 4-fluoro-2,3-dihydroxystearates have been performed to predict with the HARDPACK program the two-dimensional lattice structure based on the P1 space group. These calculations showed that intermolecular hydrogen bridges are crucial for the interactions within and between the molecules.

Effect of the headgroup structure on the aggregation behavior and stability of self-assemblies of sodium N-[4-(n-dodecyloxy)benzoyl]-l-aminoacidates in water

Three amino acid-derived chiral surfactants, sodium N-[4-(n-dodecyloxy)benzoyl]-L-leucinate (SDBL), sodium N-[4-(n-dodecyloxy)benzoyl]-L-isoleucinate (SDBIL), and sodium N-[4-(n-dodecyloxy)benzoyl]-L-threoninate (SDBT), were synthesized, and their aggregation behavior was studied in aqueous solution. Surface tension, fluorescence probe, dynamic light scattering, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), gel permeation chromatography, circular dichroism, and optical as well as transmission electron microscopic techniques were utilized to characterize the self-assemblies formed by the amphiphiles. Results of these studies reveal that the surfactants have a very low critical aggregation concentration (cac) and they form spherical vesicles spontaneously in dilute aqueous solution. The mean diameters of the vesicles were measured to be in the range of 130-190 nm. 1H NMR spectra indicated hydrogen bonding between the amide groups near the surfactant headgroup, which is one of the driving forces for vesicle formation. The vesicle formation is more favored at a pH of about 7.0. The amphiphiles also form chiral helical aggregates at relatively higher concentrations as indicated by circular dichroism spectra. The stability of the vesicles was also evaluated with respect to the surfactant concentration, pH, temperature, and aging. The vesicles have a tendency to transform into elongated vesicles (closed tubules) or rodlike micelles with an increase of the surfactant concentration and/or pH. On the basis of the results obtained from different studies, phase diagrams for all three water/amphiphile systems have been constructed. The studies have further shown that the stereogenic center at the amino acid side chain has a significant effect on the aggregation properties of the amphiphiles and on the stability of the self-assemblies.

Progress in characterization of Langmuir monolayers by consideration of compressibility

Over decades, information about the rheological properties of the condensed monolayer phases has been obtained by introduction of a two-dimensional compressibility which is defined on the basis of the surface pressure-molecular area (Pi-A) features of the monolayer. Since the last decade, fundamental progress was attained in the experimental determination of the main characteristics of Langmuir monolayers in microscopic and molecular scale. Already smallest changes in the molecular structure of the amphiphile can result in changes in the molecular arrangement in the monolayer and thus, in changes of the main characteristics of the monolayer such as, the surface pressure-area per molecule (Pi-A) isotherms, the shape and texture of the condensed phase domains and the two-dimensional lattice structure. As the classical equations of state allowed only characterisation of the fluid (gaseous, liquid-expanded) state, thermodynamically based equations of state, which consider also the aggregation of the monolayer material to the condensed phase, have been developed. The present review focuses particularly to amphiphilic monolayers, the Pi-A isotherms of which indicate the existence of two condensed phases. For this case, the experimental results of the differences in the structure features and phase properties are discussed. The generalisation of the equation of state for Langmuir monolayers developed for the case that one, two or more phase transitions in the monolayer take place, is in agreement with the experimental results that the two-dimensional compressibility of the condensed phases undergoes a jump at the phase transition, whereas the compressibility is proportional to the surface pressure within one of the condensed phases. An example is presented which explains the procedure of the theoretical analysis of Pi-A isotherms indicating the existence of two condensed phases. An element of the procedure is the application of the general principle that the behaviour of any thermodynamic system is determined by the stability condition. An interesting anisotropy of the compressibility is revealed by GIXD studies of the S-phase of octadecanol monolayers. However, similar studies performed close to the LS-S-phase transition would result in a thermodynamically impossible negative compressibility. Close to this phase transition, the compressibility cannot be determined from the positions of the maxima because the monolayer is in a disordered state attributed to elastic distortions by fluctuations with the structure of the new phase in the surrounding matrix without destroying the quasi-long-range positional order.

Effect of the Exchange of Substituent Position in an Amide Amphiphile on the Monolayer Characteristics

The monolayer characteristics of two very similar amphiphiles, N-tridecyl-beta-hydroxypropionic acid amide (C13H27-NH-CO-C2H4OH; THPA) and N-(beta-hydroxyethyl)tridecanoic acid amide (C13H27-CO-NH-C2H4OH; HETA), the chemical structure of which is only changed by exchanging the position of the two substituents at the acid amide group, are compared. These small changes in the chemical structure give rise to large differences in the phase behavior of the HETA and THPA monolayers, as concluded from the differences in the surface pressure-area (pi-A) isotherms. Since both amphiphiles have the same alkyl chain length, the shift of the fluid/condensed phase transition pressure pi(c) to higher temperatures from THPA to HETA indicates a stronger polar character of the THPA headgroup. Considerable differences between the HETA and THPA monolayers also exist in the domain morphology, although, in both cases, six arms usually grow from a round center. The fractal-shaped HETA domains grow by tip splitting under the formation of numerous doubloons so that branching is considerably limited. This suggests a certain fluidity of the HETA condensed phase. The main differences of the domains result from the higher crystallinity. The starlike THPA domains have dendritic character and can form curved dendrites, which are partially two-dimensional twins due to the formation of dislocations in the two-dimensional lattice structure. In the case of HETA monolayers, the grazing incidence X-ray diffraction studies reveal a hexagonal packing of the alkyl chains oriented perpendicularly to the surface in an LS phase. In the case of THPA monolayers, an oblique lattice is formed. However, at low temperatures, a second phase transition between two condensed phases occurs that is demonstrated by an abrupt transition between two different oblique lattice structures at the surface pressure where a cusp in the pi-A isotherms occurs at T < 10 degrees C.

Two-dimensional facets in Langmuir monolayers of 1-O-hexadecyl-rac-glycerol at the air–water interface

We study the surface phase behavior in Langmuir monolayers of 1-O-hexadecyl-rac-glycerol (C16G) by film balance and Brewster angle microscopy over a wide range of temperatures. A cusp point followed by a pronounced plateau region in the pressure-area (pi-A) isotherm indicates a first-order phase transition between a lower density liquid expanded (LE) phase and a higher density liquid condensed (LC) phase at the air-water interface. A wide variety of condensed domains are found to form just after the appearance of the cusp point. The observed surface morphology was compared with that of ethylene glycol mono-n-hexadecyl ether (C16E1) that bears an ethylene oxide (EO) unit in the head-group. As usually observed, the domains of C16E1 are found to be circular at lower temperatures and fractal at higher temperatures. Contrary to this usual behavior, the domains of C16G are found to be strip-like structures at lower temperatures, which attain increasingly compact shape as the temperature increases and finally attain faceted structures at > or = 25 degrees C. It is concluded that a higher degree of dehydration around the head-group region of C16G appreciably reduces the hydration-induced repulsive interactions between the head-groups and imparts to the molecules an increase in hydrophobicity, thereby a closer molecular packing. As a result, the molecules form increasingly compact domains as the temperature increases. Since the head-group of C16E1 is much smaller than that of C16G, dehydration effect cannot appreciably increase its hydrophobic character. Rather, increases in subphase temperature result in a decrease in the line tension of the interface giving fractal structures at higher temperatures. In addition, the changes in enthalpy (deltaH) and entropy (deltaS) values were also calculated to understand the thermodynamic nature of condensation of the molecules in the LE-LC transition region.

Influence of an amide group in methyl octadecanoates on the monolayer stability

The influence of a hydrogen bond donor and acceptor in the hydrophobic part of an amphiphile on the monolayer stability at the air/water interface is investigated. For that purpose, the amide group is integrated into the alkyl chain. Eight methyl octadecanoates have been synthesized with the amide group in two orientations and in different positions of the alkyl chain, namely, CH3O2C(CH2)m NHCO(CH2)n CH3 (n + m = 14): 1 (m = 1), 3 (m = 2), 5 (m = 3), 7 (m = 14); and CH3O2C(CH2)m CONH(CH2)n CH3: 2 (m = 1), 4 (m = 2), 6 (m = 3), 8 (m = 14). The monolayers have been characterized by their pi/A isotherms, their temperature dependence and Brewster angle microscopy (BAM). Amphiphile 1 with the amide group close to the ester group (m = 1) behaves like an unsubstituted fatty acid ester, while 3, 5, and 7, with the amide group in an intermediate and terminal position, exhibit a two-phase region. The amphiphiles 2, 4, 6, and 8, with a reversed orientation of the amide group, all exhibit a two-phase region with higher plateau pressures and lower collapse pressures than those of 1, 3, 5, and 7. For 7 and 8, domains of the liquid condensed (LC) phase are visualized by BAM in the two-phase region. The liquid expanded (LE)/LC-phase transitions are all exothermic with enthalpies deltaH ranging from -31 to -12 kJ/mol. Comparison with other bipolar amphiphiles indicates that the LC phase is better stabilized by the hydroxy and dihydroxy groups than by the amide group. For model compounds of 1-4, optimized conformers in the LE and LC phases have been determined by density functional theory (DFT) calculations.

Amino Acid based cationic surfactants in aqueous solution: physicochemical study and application of supramolecular chirality in ketone reduction

The present study provides a molecular understanding of the origin of the chirality in aqueous micelles and its correlation with the proficiency of stereoselective ketone reduction. The effects of varied headgroup architecture on the surface-active properties as well as on other microstructural parameters were studied and correlated to the structural differences of these naturally occurring amino acid containing surfactants (1-4). Micropolarity sensed by pyrene showed that the micelles prepared using 1-4 are mostly hydrated; particularly large headgroup size surfactant produces more polar environment. A theoretical study was done to quantify the varied spatial dissymmetry for all four surfactants. Asymmetric reduction of prochiral ketones was carried out at the aqueous micellar interface of these chiral amphiphiles by exploiting the supramolecular chirality as evidenced from a circular dichroism study. The enantioselectivity of the reduction process is rationally improved through increase in spatial dissymmetry and steric constraint imposed at the micellar interface by the polar head of surfactants.