Induced smectic phase in binary mixtures of twist-bend nematogens

• Anamarija Knežević,
• Irena Dokli,
• Marin Sapunar,
• Suzana Šegota,
• Ute Baumeister and
• Andreja Lesac

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1297–1307, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.122

• recent discovery of the twist-bend nematic phase (NTB) has sparked great interest in the scientific community, not only from a fundamental viewpoint, but also due to its potential for innovative applications. Here we report on the unexpected phase behaviour of a binary mixture of twist-bend nematogens. A

• intercalated smectic phase was unravelled by combined spectroscopic and computational methods and can be traced to conformational disorder of the terminal chains. These results show the importance of understanding the phase behaviour of binary mixtures, not only in targeting a wide temperature range but also

• CBI and at about 2.2 nm for BB, which is less than the half the molecular lengths. The phase behaviour of binary mixtures of CBI and BB is characterized as a function of mol percent of BB and shown in Figure 2. To obtain the values under comparable conditions, the transition temperatures of the pure

Influence of calcium on ceramide-1-phosphate monolayers

• Joana S. L. Oliveira,
• Gerald Brezesinski,
• Alexandra Hill and
• Arne Gericke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 236–245, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.22

• interaction of C1P with the C2 domain of cPLA2α, an effector protein that needs the presence of submicromolar concentrations of calcium ions. The aim of this study was to determine the phase behaviour and structural properties of C1P in the presence and absence of millimolar quantities of calcium in a well

• the monolayer structure can be seen in the presence of a 150 times larger concentration of monovalent sodium ions. Therefore, calcium ions have clearly a strong affinity for the phosphomonoester of C1P. Keywords: calcium; ceramide-1-phosphate; Langmuir monolayers; phase behaviour; structural

• studies were performed in a non-defined protonation region, either water or pH 7.2, we studied the phase behaviour and structural properties at more extreme values, namely at pH 4, where C1P should be mostly protonated, and at pH 9, where we expect the C1P to be completely deprotonated. The aim of these