Hydrocarbons disorder

Hydrated bilayers containing one or more lipid components are commonly employed as models for biological membranes. These model systems exhibit a multiplicity of structural phases that are not observed in biological membranes. In the state that is analogous to fluid biological membranes, the liquid crystal or La bilayer phase present above the main bilayer phase transition temperature, Ta, the lipid hydrocarbon chains are conforma-tionally disordered and fluid ( melted ), and the lipids diffuse in the plane of the bilayer. At temperatures well below Ta, hydrated bilayers exist in the gel, or Lp, state in which the mostly all-trans chains are collectively tilted and pack in a regular two-dimensional... 

Tarek et al. [388] studied a system with some similarities to the work of Bocker et al. described earlier—a monolayer of n-tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide. They also used explicit representations of the water molecules in a slab orientation, with the mono-layer on either side, in a molecular dynamics simulation. Their goal was to model more disordered, liquid states, so they chose two larger molecular areas, 0.45 and 0.67 nm molecule Density profiles normal to the interface were calculated and compared to neutron reflectivity data, with good agreement reported. The hydrocarbon chains were seen as highly disordered, and the diffusion was seen at both areas, with a factor of about 2.5 increase from the smaller molecular area to the larger area. They report no evidence of a tendency for the chains to aggregate into ordered islands, so perhaps this work can be seen as a realistic computer simulation depiction of a monolayer in an LE state. 

Cholesterol modifies the fluidity of membranes. At temperatures below the T, it interferes with the interaction of the hydrocarbon tails of fatty acids and thus increases fluidity. At temperatures above the T, , it limits disorder because it is more rigid than the hydrocarbon tails of the fatty acids and cannot move in the membrane to the same extent, thus timiting fluidity. At... 

Due to their demanding synthesis, diamondoids are helpful models to study structure-activity relationships in carbocations and radicals, to develop empirical computational methods for hydrocarbons, and to investigate orientational disorders in molecular crystals as well [5,32]. 

In addition, data obtained from infrared, thermal, and fluorescence spectroscopic studies of the outermost layer of skin, stratum corneum (SC), and its components imply enhancer-improved permeation of solutes through the SC is associated with alterations involving the hydrocarbon chains of the SC lipid components. Data obtained from electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction reveals that the disordering of the lamellar packing is also an important mechanism for increased permeation of drugs induced by penetration enhancers (for a recent review, see Ref. 206). 

Mix, M.C. 1982. Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Cellular Proliferative Disorders in Bivalve Molluscs from Oregon Estuaries. U.S. Environ. Protection Agency Rep. 600/4-82-026. 49 pp. 

Nonresonance Raman study of the order-disorder transition of the hydrocarbon chains at high temperatures... 

The positive current which increases rapidly on heating above 40 °C may be caused by the increase in the conformational disorder and thermal motion of the hydrocarbon chains. 

---