Investigations of amino acid-based surfactants at liquid interfaces /

Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Yang, Dengliang
Other Authors:	Cremer, Paul S. (Thesis advisor)
Format:	Thesis eBook
Language:	English
Published:	[College Station, Tex.] : [Texas A&M University], [2005]
Subjects:	Major chemistry. domains liquid interfaces Langmuir monolayers nonlinear optics chiral discrimination,amino acid-based surfactants
Online Access:	Link to OAK Trust copy

Description
Abstract:	Herein are presented collective studies of amino acid-based surfactants, also known as lipoamino acids, at liquid interfaces. Chapter III describes an investigation of domain morphology of N-Stearoylglutamic acid (N-SGA) Langmuir monolayers at the air/water interface by epifluorescence microscopy. Anisotropic feather-like domains were observed in [subscript]L-enantiomeric monolayers while symmetric circular domains were found in racemic N-SGA monolayers. At a surface pressure of 30 mN/m the enantiomeric domains melted at 31°C while the racemic domains melted at 27°C. This result is exactly opposite to the behavior found in bulk crystals where the racemate melts at a higher temperature. These results were explained in terms of different molecular packing and hydrogen bonding between bulk crystals and two-dimensional thin films for enantiomeric and racemic compounds. Chapter IV summarizes the investigations of hydrogen bonding in N-acyl amino acid monolayers by vibrational sum-frequency spectroscopy (VSFS). The intermolecular hydrogen bonding interaction between the adjacent molecules through amide-amide groups in N-stearoylalanine (N-SA) is characterized by an NH stretch peak at 3311 cm⁻¹. This is the first time that the amide NH stretching signals have been detected with the VSFS technique. A similar peak was detected at 3341 cm⁻¹on N-SGA monolayer. The higher frequency indicates that the H-bond strength is weaker due to the larger size of the glutamic acid residue. The NH stretch mode can thus be used as a fingerprint of hydrogen bonding among amide-amide groups. A peak at 3050 cm⁻¹ due to hydrogen bonding among carboxyl groups was also resolved from the VSFS spectra. Molecular models of intermolecular hydrogen bonding were proposed.
Item Description:	"Major Subject: Chemistry" Title from author supplied metadata (automated record created on Nov. , 09:45:50.) Vita. Abstract. Electronic resource.
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Bibliography:	Includes bibliographical references.