An oligo(ethylene glycol) terminated alkanethiol being an important building block for self-assembled monolayers was synthesized in three steps with high efficiency and without use of protective groups. The same sequence was utilized to prepare a specifically deuterated congener from an isotope-labeled starting material.
results along with neutron diffraction data suggest an LPP structure with alternating fluid (sphingosine chain-rich), rigid (acyl chain-rich), isotropic (linoleate-rich), rigid (acyl-chain rich), and fluid layers (sphingosine chain-rich). Such an arrangement of the skin barrier lipids with rigid layers separated with two different dynamic "fillings" i) agrees well with ultrastructural data, ii) satisfies