15min:
MOLECULAR CONFORMATIONS AND ORIENTATIONS OF FATTY ACID AND PHOSPHOLIPID MONOLAYERS AT THE AIR/WATER INTERFACE-A VIBRATIONAL SUM FREQUENCY SPECTROSCOPIC STUDY.

KANDICE L. HARPER, LAURA F. VOSS, GANG MA AND HEATHER C. ALLEN, Department of Chemistry, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210.

Vibrational sum frequency spectroscopy is a surface-specific technique that provides conformational and orientational information of molecules at interfaces. Orientational information of the phase transitions of fatty acid monolayers at the air/water interface is obtained by coupling a Langmuir trough with a broadband sum frequency spectrometer. A comparison of the molecular conformations and orientations of pure and mixed fatty acid monolayers with monolayers of the corresponding phospholipids will be presented.