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The Formation of Colloidal Crystals of Lipid A Diphosphate: Evidence for the Formation of Nanocrystals at Low Ionic Strength

The Formation of Colloidal Crystals of Lipid A Diphosphate: Evidence for the Formation of Nanocrystals at Low Ionic Strength

Authors :
C. A. Faunce
Peter Quitschau
K. Zimmermann
Rusch
Henrich H. Paradies
Hendrik Reichelt
Source :
The Journal of Physical Chemistry B. 107:9943-9946
Publication Year :
2003
Publisher :
American Chemical Society (ACS), 2003.

Abstract

Dilute electrostatically stabilized aqueous solutions of hexa-acylated (C14) lipid A diphosphate from Escherichia coli form stable and regularly shaped colloidal crystals in a size range of approximately 50-1000 nm in width and 50-100 nm in thickness. The formation of these nanocrystals occurs over a range of volume fractions between 3.5 × 10-3 and 1.2 × 10-2 and at a low ionic strength, ~10-5. The shape of these crystals appears to be cubic or rhombohedral, and when exposed to the electron beam, these fragile nanocrystals are easily damaged. Electron diffraction patterns obtained from single particles reveal that they are orientated (001) crystals that conform to a trigonal or hexagonal unit cell (a = 3.65 ± 0.07 nm and c = 1.97 ± 0.04 nm), revealing crystal-like pore walls that exhibit structural periodicity with a spacing of 0.65 nm and are at least four times the size of the unit cell adopted by lipid A diphosphate.

Details

ISSN :
15205207 and 15206106
Volume :
107
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
The Journal of Physical Chemistry B
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........1439f9da02d0b7fe98a0f8c4de8688d8
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1021/jp0304428