Measurement of sugar depletion from uncharged lamellar phases by SANS contrast variation

Abstract

We applied small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) contrast variation to samples where a microphase separation occurred. The samples contain multilamellar vesicles in equilibrium with excess "solvent" that produce a very common powder pattern in SANS: a Debye-Sherrer ring produced by the regular bilayer packing superposed to a sharply decaying Porod behaviour. These two features of the SANS pattern have distinct contrast match points (CMP). We exploit here the small angle signal to determine the partition of sugars between two coexisting microphases. The net result is an exclusion of small sugar molecules from the liquid crystalline domains of the sample. We discuss this exclusion in relation with the observed maximum swelling, headgroup hydration and bilayer softening induced by the presence of the sugar molecules.