The aim of this work has been to make use of surface scattering techniques to study soft matter at interfaces. The work presented herein is composed of two distinct bodies of work. The first comprises a fundamental study of the physical and structural properties of Langmuir monolayers composed of sulfobetaine surfactants. Physiochemical properties of the films have been investigated through the use of Langmuir trough techniques. This has been used to support x-ray and neutron reflectometry data, from which structural parameters were derived. The second body of work involves attempts to find and/or characterize novel ways of aligning proteins at interfaces. Soluble proteins at lipid interfaces have been characterized in terms of their interactions with functionalized lipid monolayers. Specific interactions have been utilized to adsorb protein layers at the interface through interactions with His-tag chelating lipids within the monolayer. These have been characterized using neutron reflectometry and quartz crystal microbalance studies. Work has also been completed to design a suitable system for the adsorption of membrane proteins. This has involved aligning phospholipid bilayer nanodiscs at the lipid interface and subsequent characterization through neutron reflectometry.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:642031 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Hazell, Gavin D. A. |
| Contributors | Edler, Karen |
| Publisher | University of Bath |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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