Probing the local order of single phospholipid membranes using grazing incidence x-ray diffraction

We report the first grazing incidence x-ray diffraction measurements of a single phospholipid bilayer at the solid-liquid interface. Our grazing incidence x-ray diffraction and reflectivity measurements reveal that the lateral ordering in a supported DPPE (1, 2-Dipalmitoyl-sn-Glycero-3-Phosphoethanolamine) bilayer is significantly less than that of an equivalent monolayer at the air-liquid interface. Our findings also indicate that the leaflets of the bilayer are uncoupled in contrast to the scattering from free standing phosphatidylcholine bilayers. The methodology presented can be readily implemented to study more complicated biomembranes and their interaction with proteins.