title: Radiation damage in tripalmitin layers studied by means of infrared spectroscopy and electron microscopy.
abstract: Structural deteriorations in biomembranes, as inevitably induced while structural information is gathered by electron optical methods, were evaluated by infrared spectroscopy. Tripalmitin model membranes were irradiated with 100 keV-electrons in an electron microscope. The intensity decay of group vibrations over the dose reveals the sequence of damage in the polar and nonpolar part of the molecule. The C-C backbone, being the most important structural feature, shows a significant latency effect up to 0.6 e-/A2 and is completely disordered by 3 e-/A2, corresponding to about three inelastic processes per molecule.
mesh_terms: D004583:Electrons; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D010168:Palmitates / Q000528:radiation effects*; D010169:Palmitic Acids / Q000528:radiation effects*; D011830:Radiation Effects; D013055:Spectrophotometry, Infrared
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D010168:Palmitates; D010169:Palmitic Acids