title: Characterization of surfactant liquid crystal phases suitable for molecular alignment and measurement of dipolar couplings.
abstract: Media employed for imparting partial alignment onto solute molecules have recently attracted considerable attention, since they permit the measurement of NMR parameters for solute biomolecules commonly associated with solid state NMR. Here we characterize a medium which is based on a quasi-ternary surfactant system comprising cetylpyridinium bromide/hexanol/sodium bromide. We demonstrate that dilute solutions of this system can exist in liquid crystalline phases which orient in the magnetic field and allow the measurement of residual dipolar couplings under a variety of conditions. The present system is extremely versatile and robust, tolerating different buffer conditions, temperature ranges and concentrations.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Chemical Physics, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
authors.forename: L G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Barrientos
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dolan
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Gronenborn
mesh_terms: D001965:Bromides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D004655:Emulsions; D005782:Gels; D000441:Hexanols / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D008280:Magnetics; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D019906:Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular; D017670:Sodium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D013501:Surface-Active Agents / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D013816:Thermodynamics; D014783:Viscosity
chemical_list: D001965:Bromides; D004655:Emulsions; D005782:Gels; D000441:Hexanols; D017670:Sodium Compounds; D013501:Surface-Active Agents; C027938:sodium bromide