Use of Humidity Controlled Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Simultaneous Grazing Incidence Small Angle X-ray Scattering to Investigate the Self-assembly and Energetics of Lipid Thin Films.

ABSTRACT: We present a novel method of analyzing lyotropic liquid crystal mesophases─self-organized amphiphile-water nanomaterials─using in situ grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GI-SAXS) on a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) in a controlled humidity environment. This combination simultaneously gives nanostructural dimensions and phase symmetry (through SAXS), compositional data (% water by weight, from QCM data), and water activity within the sample (from the equilibrium relative humidity above the film), as the sample film takes up and releases water during humidity sweeps. Analysis of the combined data provides immediate access to information typically built up from experiments on multiple individual samples prepared at different fixed compositions. Our approach greatly redu

SUBMITTER: Macklin J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12044696 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature