Untersuchungen der Konformation von alternierenden Copolymeren ausL-Leucin undL-Ornithin in wäßrigen Lösungen

The conformation of the alternating copoly-(L.-leucyl-L-ornithine) was studied in solutions of various salts and in salt-free water as well by CD technique. This copolymer is shown to undergo a conformational transition from a disordered to aβ-structure by adding salts or with increasing the pH to a alkaline region. Such a tendency to form aβ-structure is enhanced by neutral salts like KF, NaF, and NaCl and remarkably enhanced by water structure breaking anions like LiClO₄ and NaClO₄. Theβ-structure induced by perchlorate ions is stable up to 90 °C. This finding can be interpreted in terms of the shielding effect resulted from a specific binding of perchlorate ions with positively charged side chains. Aβ-I-structure is also induced by water structure making anions like Li₂SO₄ and Na₂SO₄, but theβ-structure inducing molecular mechanism is probably different from the case of water structure breaking anions, due to its electrochemical bivalency. This becomes obvious from the fact that above 0.005 mole/l precipition occurs and from model considerations.