Determination of the lateral diffusion coefficient of lecithin-water systems using fluorescence spectroscopy

Abstract

The lateral diffusion coefficients, D_diff, of phospholipid molecules in lecithin-water systems have been investigated. The method used for the quantitative determination is a spectroscopic technique. 1-pyrene dodecanoic acid was used as the spectroscopic probe. From the fluorescence spectra acquired, the monomer and excimer intensities were determined and were use to get D_diff. The computed D_diff are in the order of 10^-8 suggesting that the systems observed are in the liquid crystalline L_α phase.