Liquid-disordered state

Although the lipid bilayer structure is quite stable, its individual phospholipid and sterol molecules have some freedom of motion (Fig. 11-15). The structure and flexibility of the lipid bilayer depend on temperature and on the kinds of lipids present. At relatively low temperatures, the lipids in a bilayer form a semisolid gel phase, in which all types of motion of individual lipid molecules are strongly constrained the bilayer is paracrystalline (Fig. ll-15a). At relatively high temperatures, individual hydrocarbon chains of fatty acids are in constant motion produced by rotation about the carbon-carbon bonds of the long acyl side chains. In this liquid-disordered state, or fluid state (Fig. 11—15b), the interior of the bilayer is more fluid than solid and the bilayer is like a sea of constantly moving lipid. At intermediate temperatures, the lipids exist in a liquid-ordered state there is less thermal motion in the acyl chains of the lipid bilayer, but lateral movement in the plane of the bilayer still takes place. These differences in bilayer state are easily observed in liposomes composed of a single lipid,... 

Lipids in a biological membrane can exist in liquid-ordered or liquid-disordered states in the latter state, thermal motion of acyl chains makes the interior of the bilayer fluid. Fluidity is affected by temperature, fatty acid composition, and sterol content. 

Liquid ordered phase In lipids, a meso-phase state with properties between the liquid disordered state and the gel state, in which lipid molecules diffuse rapidly but have somewhat restricted conformational freedom. 

In another study Milehev and Landau [27] investigated in detail the transition from a disordered state of a polydisperse polymer melt to an ordered (liquid erystalline) state, whieh oeeurs in systems of GM when the ehains are eonsidered as semiflexible. It turns out that in two dimensions this order-disorder transition is a eontinuous seeond-order transformation whereas in 3d the simulational results show a diseontinuous first-order transformation. Comprehensive finite-size analysis [27] has established... 

Liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) are composite systems where side chains of a crystalline polymer are cross-linked. Their mesogenic domains can be ordered nematically and undergo a phase transition to a disordered state at a temperature well above the glass-transition temperamre (Tg) of the polymer. Although the phase transition is thermally driven, LCEs demonstrate electrical conductivity and thus can be electrically stimulated." Ratna" has reported contractions of nearly 30% due to the phase transition of acrylate-based LCEs. 

As the temperature is decreased, the chains become increasingly rigid zc then approaches 1 if we assume that there is only one fully ordered crystalline structure and Zconf for the liquid becomes smaller than 1. This means that, at this level of approximation, the disordered state becomes less favorable than the crystalline ground state. A first-order disorder-order phase transition is expected to occur under these conditions. Flory interpreted this phase transition as the spontaneous crystallization of bulk semiflexible polymers [12], However, since the intermolecular anisotropic repulsion essential in the Onsager model is not considered in the calculation, only the short-range intramolecular interaction is responsible for this phase transition. 

In aqueous systems, membrane lipids may exist in a gel-like solid state or as a two-dimensional liquid. In the case of pure phospholipids, these states interconvert at a well-defined transition temperature, Tc, that increases with alkyl chain length and decreases with introduction of alkyl chain unsaturation. In cell membranes, which have marked heterogeneity in both the polar and nonpolar domains of the bilayer, this state is described as liquid disordered . The presence of sufficient sphingolipids, with... 

Spin Disordered State (Quantum Spin Liquid State) Neighboring Superconductivity. .. 103... 

In the last few years disc-like molecules have been shown to form liquid crystals (Chandrasekhar, 1994). Typical of them are hexasubstituted esters of benzene (I) and certain porphyrin esters (II) (see below). In the liquid crystalline state, the disc-like molecules are stacked aperiodically in columns (liquid-like), the different columns packing in a two-dimensional array (crystal-like). The phases have translational periodicity in two dimensions but liquid-like disorder in the third. In addition to the columnar phase(D), the disc-like molecules also exhibit a nematic phase (Nj,). A transition between D and phases has been reported. 

Microhardness (MH), has been shown to be a convenient additional technique to detect accurately the ferro to paraelectric phase changes in these copolymers. The increase of MH as a function of VF2 polar sequences observed at room temperature is correlated with the contraction of the p-all-trans unit cell On the other hand, the fast exponential decrease of MH with increasing temperature, observed above Tc, is similar to that obtained for glassy polymers above Tg and suggests the existence of a liquid crystalline state in the high temperature paraelectric phase. This phase is characterized by a disordered sequence of conformational isomers (tg-, tg+, tt) as discussed for Condis crystals [109]. 

ORDER-DISORDER THEORY AND APPLICATIONS. Phase transitions in binary liquid solutions, gas condensations, order-disorder transitions in alloys, ferromagnetism, antiferromagnetism, ferroelectncity, anti-ferroelectricity, localized absorptions, helix-coil transitions in biological polymers and the one-dimensional growth of linear colloidal aggregates are all examples of transitions between an ordered and a disordered state. 

Nevertheless, the definition of crystallinity must be somewhat modified. Landau [2] introduces the function p(x, y. z) as the probability of finding a particle (atom, electron, ion) in a particular position. In a crystal this function is periodic at any distance in a coordinate system x, y, z referred to some fixed group of particles in any disorderly state (gas, liquid), it becomes constant at sufficiently great distances. 

Figure 8.3. Equilibrium constants (log K) for the metastable coexistence of completely ordered and disordered CaMg(C03>2 with dolomite in its stable order/disorder state as a function of temperature at constant pressure. SAT refers to the vapor-liquid curve for pure H2O. (After Bowers et al., 1984.)...

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