The possibility to use sucrose solutions as medium for X-ray and neutron small-angle scattering experiments has been explored for dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) vesicles and mixed DMPC/C_(12)E_(8) aggregates. The influence of sucrose concentration on phospholipid vesicles size and polydispersity has been investigated by complimentary X-ray and neutron scattering. Sucrose solutions decreased vesicle size and polydispersity and increased a contrast between phospholipid membrane and bulk solvent sufficiently for X-rays. 40% sucrose in H2O increased X-ray contrast by up to 10 times compared to pure H2O. The range of sucrose concentration 30%-40% created the best experimental conditions for the X-ray small-angle experiment with phospholipid vesicles.
Cite
@article{arxiv.physics/0110078,
title = {Sucrose Solutions as Prospective Medium to Study the Vesicle Structure: SAXS and SANS study},
author = {M. A. Kiselev and P. Lesieur and A. M. Kisselev and D. Lombardo and M. Killany and S. Lesieur},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0110078},
year = {2007}
}