Electron diffraction of wet phospholipid bilayers.

The structure of fully hydrated dipalmitoyl lecithin single bilayers, and monolayers deposited on Formvar substrates are studied by electron diffraction, using a hydration stage fitted to an electron microscope. Selective area diffraction patterns of these films indicate that there are domains consisting of mosaics of crystallites of hexagonally packed lipid chains. The size of these domains are typically several mum in diameter. The diffraction intensity agrees with that calculated from the electron scattering factor of the hydrocarbon chains of the lipid molecule.