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IRTG / Soft Matter Science
Freiburger Materialforschungszentrum
Stefan-Meier-Str. 21
79104 Freiburg, Germany

softmattergraduate[at]uni-freiburg.de


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You are here: Home Events Prof. Alfred Blume "Interactions of polyphilic molecules with model membranes and monolayers"

Prof. Alfred Blume "Interactions of polyphilic molecules with model membranes and monolayers"

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Institute of Chemistry - Physical Chemistry, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany

What
  • Seminar
When Jul 13, 2015
from 02:15 PM to 03:00 PM
Where Seminarraum B, FMF, Stefan-Meier-Str. 21, Freiburg
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The term "amphiphilic" is generally well-known. The chemical structure of amphiphilic molecules is such that hydrophobic and a hydrophilic moieties are combined within one molecules. Prime examples for amphiphilic molecules are surfactants and lipids. Phospholipids are one of the major components of biological membranes and when put into water spontaneously form bilayer membranes which serve as model systems for biological membranes. Polyphilic molecules have in their chemical structure at least one additional moiety with a different "philicity", for instance, a fluorinated alkyl chain. Fluorinated hydrocarbons are hydrophobic but also lipophobic as they usually aggregate in normal hydrocarbon environment. In our research group FOR 1145 we study the mixing and aggregation behavior of polyphilic low molecular weight molecules as well as macromolecules when inserted into phospholipid membranes or lipid monolayers at the air-water interface.

In this presentation I will describe the interaction of amphiphilic as well as polyphilic block copolymers with these membrane model systems. Experiments using small as well as giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) were performed to study the interaction of these molecules with lipid bilayers. Experiments on lipid monolayers supported the findings on their insertion obtained on lipid bilayers.

Rod-like low molecular weight bolaamphiphiles and bolapolyphiles with oligo(phenylene ethynylene) back-bone can also be incorporated into membranes but can segregate into polyphile-rich domains with fractal hexagonal features which can be visualized in CLSM experiments on GUVs due to their fluorescence properties.

 

invited by Prof. Regine Süss

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