Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopic Investigation on Langmuir-Blodgett Films of Octadecanoyl Ester of 1-(2-Carboxyethyl) Thymine: Molecular Orientation,Molecular Recognition to Complementary Base of Nucleic Acid and Order-Disorder Transition

Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) transmission, polarized transmission, reflection absorption (RA) and Attenuated total reflection (ATR) spectroscopy were employed to investigate the molecular orientation and molecular recognition to the complementary base at the air / water interface of a novel nucleolipid amphiphile, octadecanoyl ester of 1-(2-carboxyethyl) thymine. It has been found that the molecules are biaxially oriented and the hydrocarbon chain titled considerably from the substrate normal as well as the chromophoric part in the LB film Molecular recognition through complementary bases pairing takes place at the air / water interface between the thymine moiety in the head group of the amphiphile and adenosine in the subphase, the hydrogen involved in the host-guest interactions has been detected by using FTIR-ATR technique. FTIR transmission spectra measured at elevated temperatures revealed that the order-disorder transition of the LB film which contains the complementary base occurs at lower temperature. To our best knowledge, investigation of the order-disorder transitions in nucleolipid amphiphile LB films and comparative studies of the order-disorder transitions between nucleolipid amphiphile LB film that contains and does not contain the complementary bases have been virtually nonexistent, so far.