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The microscopic dynamics for the gel and liquid-crystalline phase of highly aligned D2O-hydrated bilayers of 1-palmitoyl-oleoyl-sn-glycero-phosphocholine (POPC) were investigated in the temperature range from 248 to 273 K by using incoherent quasi-elastic neutrons scattering (QENS). We develop a model for describing the molecular motions of the liquid phase occurring in the 0.3 to 350 ps time range. Accordingly, the complex dynamics of hydrogen are described in terms of simple dynamical processes involving different parts of the phospholipid chain. The analysis of the data evidences the existence of three different motions: the fast motion of hydrogen vibrating around the carbon atoms, the intermediate motion of carbon atoms in the acyl chains, and the slower translational motion of the entire phospholipid molecule. The influence of the temperature on these dynamical processes is investigated. In particular, by going from gel to liquid-crystalline phase, we reveal an increase of the segmental motion mainly affecting the terminal part of the acyl chains and a change of the diffusional dynamics from a localized rattling-like motion to a confined diffusion.

We investigated molecular motions in the 0.3–350 ps time range of D2O-hydrated bilayers of 1-palmitoyl-oleoyl-sn-glycero-phosphocholine and 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-phosphocholine in the liquid phase by quasielastic neutron scattering. Model analysis of sets of spectra covering scale lengths from 4.8 to 30 A revealed the presence of three types of motion taking place on well-separated time scales: (i) slow diffusion of the whole phospholipid molecules in a confined cylindrical region; (ii) conformational motion of the phospholipid chains; and (iii) fast uniaxial rotation of the hydrogen atoms around their carbon atoms. Based on theoretical models for the hydrogen dynamics in phospholipids, the spatial extent of these motions was analysed in detail and the results were compared with existing literature data. The complex dynamics of protons was described in terms of elemental dynamical processes involving different parts of the phospholipid chain on whose motions the hydrogen atoms ride.

By using the fixed energy window method in incoherent elastic neutron scattering, molecular motions in the 150 ps timescale in highly oriented multilayers of 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylcholine (DMPC) membranes in excess of water (D2O) have been studied as a function of temperature, in the range from 27 to 325 K. The same system in partially deuterated form and with the addition of a pore-forming peptide (gramicidin) has also been investigated. By proper orientation of the membrane plane with respect to the scattering wavevector Q, information on in plane and out of plane motions of lipid membranes have been derived. Two relevant dynamical transitions were observed at T = 297 K and at T = 270 K. The former is related to the structural main transition from gel to liquid phase of the phospholipid bilayer, while the latter is related to a transition of the aqueous solvent. The inclusion of gramicidin shifts the main transition down to 294 K and the second transition up to 276 K. In both cases the observed dynamical transitions show an enhanced mobility in the direction normal to the membrane plane.