ELECTRICAL and EMISSION PROPERTIES OF CHLOROPHYLL a IN PLANAR ASYMMETRICAL MEMBRANES

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Abstract
Abstract—We have designed and constructed an experimental set‐up allowing the simultaneous determination of the electrical and fluorescence properties of pigments incorporated in asymmetrical lipid bilayers formed from monolayers. The system is composed of two Langmuir troughs machined in an annealed Teflon block. Each trough is mounted with a movable barrier for the compression of the monolayers as well as with a float type Langmuir torsion balance to measure the surface properties of the monolayers prior to membrane formation. The trough is also equipped with optical windows which permit the localization of a laser beam on the reconstituted membrane incorporating the chromophore. The reconstituted bilayers are further characterized by measurement of their specific resistance and capacitance properties. A detailed description of the experimental method proposed is given, stressing the main advantages of our technique. Finally preliminary results on asymmetrical phosphatidylethanolamine/phosphatidylserine bilayers incorporating chlorophyll‐a molecules are presented and discussed.