Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 9, 2025

Phase Behavior of Charged Vesicles Under Symmetric and Asymmetric Solution Conditions Monitored with Fluorescence Microscopy
Published on: October 24, 2017
Chiral cones and vesicles from Gemini-type fatty acid-heteroditopic amine mixtures
B Vijai Shankar1, Archita Patnaik1
1Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600 036, India. archita59@yahoo.com.
Abstract:
A twin-chiral and twin-tailed Gemini-type fatty acid with a rigid spacer, 2,3-bis(decyloxy) succinic acid, formed chiral self-assembled structures in aqueous solution with heteroditopic amines, such as 6-aminohexanoic acid and 4-aminobutyric acid. The morphology of such structures was governed by the stoichiometry between the fatty acid and the amine. Mixtures with 1 : 2 molar ratio formed exclusively spherical vesicles, while the 1 : 1 mixtures resulted in entropically driven chiral cones in addition to spherical vesicles. Surface tension measurements, light scattering, and TEM studies proved the existence of vesicles in aqueous solution. Cones were formed through disclinations introduced in the hexatic chiral membrane with specific angles, in accordance with θ = arcsin (1 - (n/6)), [0 < θ < π/2, 1 < n < 5]. Mixtures prepared with 4-aminobutyric acid formed only spherical vesicles and no conical self-assemblies, emphasizing the geometry of the Gemini-heteroditopic amine pair, which directs the morphology of the final self-assembled structures.
More Related Videos
06:35Construction and Systematical Symmetric Studies of a Series of Supramolecular Clusters with Binary or Ternary Ammonium Triphenylacetates
Published on: February 15, 2016
10:58SNARE-mediated Fusion of Single Proteoliposomes with Tethered Supported Bilayers in a Microfluidic Flow Cell Monitored by Polarized TIRF Microscopy
Published on: August 24, 2016
Related Concept Videos
Racemic Mixtures and the Resolution of Enantiomers
Prochirality
Chirality in Nature
Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers
¹H NMR Chemical Shift Equivalence: Enantiotopic and Diastereotopic Protons
In chiral compounds such as 2-butanol, replacing the methylene hydrogens at C3 produces a pair of...
Chirality
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...