Study of the impact of illumination on the fine structure and the electrostatics of monolayers made of photocleavable lipid-porphyrine conju

Lipid-porphyrin conjugates (Lip-Por) are unique compounds that can self-assemble into liposome-like structures named “Porphysomes”. Herein we synthesized unprecedented smart Lip-Por conjugates that can form stable monolayer. Upon illumination, the Langmuir Isotherms of these conjugates is modified which can be related to their structural changes upon illumination. The aim of the proposed project is to assess the structural changes upon illumination of the monolayers made either of pure conjugates or their mixture with cholesterol, by analyzing the vertical fine structures of the monolayers but also the density profiles of the sulfur groups present in their structures and ions present in the buffer before and after illumination by the unique combination of X-ray reflectivity (XRR) and grazing-incidence X-ray fluorescence (GIXF) at the air/buffer interface respectively.