Figure 2.

Structure of the strong film formed from the switchable peptide surfactant AM1 at the air–water interface, determined by neutron reflectometry of deuterated peptide. The overall peptide distribution (black line) comprises hydrophobic (yellow line) and hydrophilic (cyan line) distributions separated by approximately 7.5 Å. Surface roughness is represented by a distribution of water density (blue line). The film was formed by self-assembly from a solution of 5 μM protonated or partially deuterated AM1 in 25 mM HEPES buffer at pH 7.4 in the presence of 100 μM ZnSO₄.