ENHANCED CIRCULAR DICHROISM AND PHASE SEPARATION OF AZOBENZENE-CONTAINING CHIRAL BILAYER.

An azobenzene-containing chiral amphiphile showed a drastic enhancement of circular dichroism (CD) due to formation of the rigid bilayer assembly. The drastic CD change was caused by phase transition of the matrix bilayer in the case of mixed bilayers with dihexadecyldimethylammonium bromide, but was caused by phase transition of the chiral component in the case of the single component bialyer. Both CD and absorption spectra of the azobenzene-containing chiral bilayer were used for detecting phase separation of mixed membranes. It is pointed out that the CD technique is widely applicable to phase separation studies.