An electron spin resonance study of the soy bean phosphatidylcholine-based reversed micelles

The ESR spectra of 1-palmitoyl-2-stearoyl-(n-doxyl)-glycero-3-phosphocholine spin label positional isomers (n = 5, 7, 10, 12 and 16) have been studied in soy bean phosphatidylcholine (SPC)-based microemulsions with various volume fractions of disperse phase over the wide temperature range. The maximum hyperfine splitting 2A_max and the order parameters 5 were taken as indices of the rotational mobility and the motion spatial restrictions of the labeled lipid chain segments. It is found that the temperatures T_tr at which sharp enhancements of 2A_max and 5 occur depend on concentration and size of the reversed micelles in solutions. To explain this, a plausible model, taking into account capability of the SPC molecule hydrocarbon chains to change a tilt angle with respect to the surface of a polar head group as temperature varies, is proposed. The estimations of the correlation times τ_s1 obtained from the lineshape characteristics of the ESR spectra provided the possibility to suggest that these correlation times characterize the reorientations of the SPC chain axis about the normal to the surface of a polar head group of a reversed micelle.