Characterising the Structure Change of Phospholipid Aggregates in Liquid Hydrocarbons - with Particular Focus on Reverse Vesicles
The research I will be pursuing at the ILL is to evaluate the structural evolution of self organised aggregates in hydrocarbon liquids at low temperatures, with a view to creating stable reverse vesicles. Reverse vesicles are bilayer structures which encapsulate nonpolar liquids within a nonpolar environment. The bilayer of surfactants in reverse vesicles are structured in the opposite way to normal vesicles – with the lipid groups lining the external surface confining the polar heads to the interior of the bilayer. This structure might be stable or evolve into other aggregate types, e.g. reverse micelles, when reductions in temperature are performed. An application for reverse vesicles includes use in drug delivery systems within the pharmaceutical industry and also has astrobiological interest as cell membranes for theoretical hydrocarbon-based biota inhabiting the methane/ethane lakes and seas on Titan (Saturn’s largest satellite). The surfactants will be a mixture of long and short lecithins, with NaCl as a stabiliser. In order to achieve this we will use D11, using deuterated hydrocarbon solvents, and FISH software for analysis of the SANS data.
Please note that you will need to login with your ILL credentials to download the data.
Download DataThe recommended format for citing this dataset in a research publication is in the following format:
Neal Skipper; FORTES Andrew Dominic; MARTEL Anne and NORMAN Lucy. (2012). Characterising the Structure Change of Phospholipid Aggregates in Liquid Hydrocarbons - with Particular Focus on Reverse Vesicles. Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) doi:10.5291/ILL-DATA.8-03-770
ILL has partnered with DataCite as the registration agency
for data persistent identifiers.