Enhanced Circular Dichroism and Phase Separation of Azobenzene-Containing Chiral Bilayer

Abstract

Abstract An azobenzene-containing chiral amphiphile showed a drastic enhancement of circular dichroism (CD) due to formation of the rigid bilayer assembly. The drastic CD change was caused by phase transition of the matrix bilayer in the case of mixed bilayers with dihexadecyldimethylammonium bromide, but was caused by phase transition of the chiral component in the case of the single component bilayer. Both CD and absorption spectra of the azobenzene-containing chiral bilayer were used for detecting phase separation of mixed membranes. It was pointed out that the CD technique is widely applicable to phase separation studies.