Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction studies of condensed double-chain phospholipid monolayers formed at the soft air/water interface.

The use of highly brilliant synchrotron light sources in the middle of the 1980s for X-ray diffraction has revolutionized the research of condensed monolayers. Since then, monolayers gained popularity as convenient quasi two-dimensional model systems widely used in biophysics and material science. This review focuses on structures observed in one-component phospholipid monolayers used as simplified two-dimensional models of biological membranes. In a monolayer system the phase transitions can be easily triggered at constant temperature by increasing the packing density of the lipids by compression. Simultaneously the monolayer structure changes are followed in situ by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction. Competing interactions between the different parts of the molecule are responsible for the different monolayer structures. These forces can be modified by chemical variations of the hydrophobic chain region, of the hydrophilic head group region or of the interfacial region between chains and head groups. Modifications of monolayer structures triggered by changes of the chemical structure of double-chain phospholipids are highlighted in this paper.