Mesoscale Ordering of Phycocyanin Molecules in Langmuir-Blodgett Multilayers

Phycocyanin molecules, which are part of light-harvesting complexes in cyanobacteria, can be assembled into mesoscale multilayer nanofilms by the Langmuir-Blodgett technique. Results obtained by quartz crystal microbalance and atomic force microscopy confirm the homogeneity and reproducibility of phycocyanin Langmuir-Blodgett multilayer deposition. We show by cryo-electron microdiffraction that amorphous phycocyanin Langmuir-Blodgett multilayers form, after annealing at 150 degrees C and cooling to room temperature, a layered nanofibrillar lattice with rotational disorder. Scanning X-ray nanodiffraction suggests that structural transformation is not homogeneous through the film but limited to patches of up to about 10 mu m diameter.