EN
The effect of some biologically active amphilic quaternary ammonium chlorides (QA) on properties of bimolecular planar membranes (BLM) formed of lipids extracted from bovine erythrocytes was studied. Ammonium salts differed in the alkyl chain length or in the non-methylene group incorporated between the hydrocarbon chain and the polar head of a molecule. It was found that in the case of a series of QA of general structure (CH3)3N+CH2OCnH2n+1 (n=4, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18) there exists a maximal interaction between QA and BLM for QA with n=16. It was also found that the introduction of different functional groups, between the nitrogen atom and the alkyl chain of the molecule significantly changed the interaction between ammonium salts and lipid membranes. The observed changes are explained in terms of changed amphiphilic properties of the molecule.