RESUMO

The photodetachment and stability of R-Mandelate, the deprotonated form of the R-Mandelic acid, was investigated by observing the neutral species issued from either simple photodetachment or dissociative photodetachment in a cold anions set-up. R-Mandalate has the possibility to form an intramolecular ionic hydrogen-bond between adjacent hydroxyl and carboxylate groups. The potential energy surface along the proton transfer (PT) coordinate between both groups (O- …H+ …- OCO) features a single local minima, with the proton localized on the O- group (OH…- OCO). However, the structure with the proton localized on the - OCO group (O- …HOCO) is also observed because it falls within the extremity of the vibrational wavefunction of the OH…- OCO isomer along the PT coordinate. The stability of the corresponding radicals, produced upon photodetachment, is strongly dependent on the position of the proton in the anion: the radicals produced from the OH…- OCO isomer decarboxylate without barrier, while the radicals produced from the O- …HOCO isomer are stable.

Assuntos

RESUMO

The decarboxylation (CO2 loss) mechanism of cold monodeprotonated phthalic acid was studied in a photodissociation action spectrometer by quantifying mass-selected product anions and neutral particles as a function of the excitation energy. The analysis proceeded by interpreting the translational energy distribution of the generated uncharged products, and with the help of quantum calculations. In particular, this study reveals different fragmentation pathways in the deprotonated anion and in the radical generated upon electron photodetachment. Unlike the behavior found in other deprotonated aryl carboxylic acids, which do not fragment in the anion excited state, a double loss of CO2 molecules takes place in the phthalic monoanion. Moreover, at higher excitation energies the phthalic monoanion experiences decarboxylative photodetachment with a statistical distribution of product translational energies, which contrasts with the impulsive dissociation reactions characteristic of other aryl carboxylic anions.

RESUMO

The competition between dissociative photodetachment and photodissociation of cold benzoate and naphthoate anions was studied through measurement of the kinetic energy of the neutral fragments and intact parent benzoyloxy and naphtoyloxy radicals as well as by detecting the anionic fragments whenever they are produced. For the benzoate anion, there is no ionic photodissociation and the radical dissociation occurs near the vertical photodetachment energy. This is in agreement with DFT calculations showing that the dissociation energy in CO2 and C6H5˙ is very low. The dissociation barrier can be deduced from experimental results and calculations to be (0.7 ± 0.1) eV, which makes the benzoyloxyradical C6H5COO˙ very unstable, although more stable than the acetyloxy radical. In the case of naphthoate, the observation of negative fragments at low excitation energies demonstrates the opening of the ionic photodissociation channel in the excited state of the naphthoate anion, whose yield decreases at higher energies when the dissociative photodetachment channel opens.

RESUMO

The excited state lifetimes of DNA bases are often very short due to very efficient non-radiative processes assigned to the ππ*-nπ* coupling. A set of protonated aromatic diazine molecules (pyridazine, pyrimidine and pyrazine C4H5N2(+)) and protonated pyrimidine DNA bases (cytosine, uracil and thymine), as well as the protonated pyridine (C5H6N(+)), have been investigated. For all these molecules except one tautomer of protonated uracil (enol-keto), electronic spectroscopy exhibits vibrational line broadening. Excited state geometry optimization at the CC2 level has been conducted to find out whether the excited state lifetimes measured from line broadening can be correlated to the calculated ordering of the ππ* and nπ* states and the ππ*-nπ* energy gap. The short lifetimes, observed when one nitrogen atom of the ring is not protonated, can be rationalized by relaxation of the ππ* state to the nπ* state or directly to the electronic ground state through ring puckering.

RESUMO

The gas phase structure and excited state dynamics of o-aminophenol-H2O complex have been investigated using REMPI, IR-UV hole-burning spectroscopy, and pump-probe experiments with picoseconds laser pulses. The IR-UV spectroscopy indicates that the isomer responsible for the excitation spectrum corresponds to an orientation of the OH bond away from the NH2 group. The water molecule acts as H-bond acceptor of the OH group of the chromophore. The complexation of o-aminophenol with one water molecule induced an enhancement in the excited state lifetime on the band origin. The variation of the excited state lifetime of the complex with the excess energy from 1.4 ± 0.1 ns for the 0-0 band to 0.24 ± 0.3 ns for the band at 0-0 + 120 cm(-1) is very similar to the variation observed in the phenol-NH3 system. This experimental result suggests that the excited state hydrogen transfer reaction is the dominant channel for the non radiative pathway. Indeed, excited state ab initio calculations demonstrate that H transfer leading to the formation of the H3O(•) radical within the complex is the main reactive pathway.

RESUMO

The photo-induced damages of DNA in interaction with metal cations, which are found in various environments, still remain to be characterized. In this paper, we show how the complexation of a DNA base (cytosine (Cyt)) with a metal cation (Ag(+)) changes its electronic properties. By means of UV photofragment spectroscopy of cold ions, it was found that the photoexcitation of the CytAg(+) complex at low energy (315-282) nm efficiently leads to ionized cytosine (Cyt(+)) as the single product. This occurs through a charge transfer state in which an electron from the p orbital of Cyt is promoted to Ag(+), as confirmed by ab initio calculations at the TD-DFT/B3LYP and RI-ADC(2) theory level using the SV(P) basis set. The low ionization energy of Cyt in the presence of Ag(+) could have important implications as point mutation of DNA upon sunlight exposition.

Assuntos

RESUMO

The very fast relaxation of the excited states to the ground state in DNA/RNA bases is a necessary process to ensure the photostability of DNA and its rate is highly sensitive to the tautomeric form of the bases. Protonation of the bases plays a crucial role in many biochemical and mutagenic processes and it can result in alternative tautomeric structures, thus making important the knowledge of the properties of protonated DNA/RNA bases. We report here the photofragmentation spectra of the five protonated DNA/RNA bases. In most of the cases, the spectra exhibit well resolved vibrational structures, with broad bands associated with very short excited state lifetimes. The similarity between the electronic properties, e.g. excitation energy and very short excited state lifetimes for the canonical tautomers of protonated and neutral DNA bases, suggests that the former could also play an important role in the photostability mechanism of DNA.

Assuntos

RESUMO

The gas phase structure of 2-aminophenol has been investigated using UV-UV as well as IR-UV hole burning spectroscopy. The presence of a free OH vibration in the IR spectrum rules out the contribution of the cis isomer, which is expected to have an intramolecular H-bond, to the spectra. The excited state lifetimes of different vibronic levels have been measured with pump-probe picosecond experiments and are all very short (35 ± 5) ps as compared to other substituted phenols. The electronic states and active vibrational modes of the cis and trans isomers have been calculated with ab initio methods for comparison with the experimental spectra. The Franck-Condon simulation of the spectrum using the calculated ground and excited state frequencies of the trans isomer is in good agreement with the experimental one. The very short excited state lifetime of 2-aminophenol can then be explained by the strong coupling between the two first singlet excited states due to the absence of symmetry, the geometry of the trans isomer being strongly nonplanar in the excited state.

RESUMO

Recently, DNA molecules have received great attention because of their potential applications in material science. One interesting example is the production of highly fluorescent and tunable DNA-Agn clusters with cytosine (C)-rich DNA strands. Here, we report the UV photofragmentation spectra of gas-phase cytosine···Ag(+)···cytosine (C2Ag(+)) and cytosine···H(+)···cytosine (C2H(+)) complexes together with theoretical calculations. In both cases, the excitation energy does not differ significantly from that of isolated cytosine or protonated cytosine, indicating that the excitation takes place on the DNA base. However, the excited-state lifetime of the C2H(+) (τ = 85 fs), estimated from the bandwidth of the spectrum, is at least 2 orders of magnitude shorter than that of the C2Ag(+) (τ > 5000 fs). The increased excited-state lifetime upon silver complexation is quite unexpected, and it clearly opens the question about what factors are controlling the nonradiative decay in pyrimidine DNA bases. This is an important result for the expanding field of metal-mediated base pairing and may also be important to the photophysical properties of DNA-templated fluorescent silver clusters.

RESUMO

The excited state dynamics of the H-bonded 7-azaindole-phenol complex (7AI-PhOH) has been studied by combination of picosecond pump and probe experiments, LIF measurements on the nanosecond time scale and ab initio calculations. A very short S(1) excited state lifetime (30 ps) has been measured for the complex upon excitation of the 0(0)(0) transition and the lifetime remains unchanged when the ν(6) vibrational mode (0(0)(0) + 127 cm(-1)) is excited. In addition, no UV-visible fluorescence was observed by exciting the complex with nanosecond pulses. Two possible deactivation channels have been investigated by ab initio calculations: first an excited state tautomerization assisted by a concerted double proton transfer (CDPT) and second an excited state concerted proton electron transfer (CPET) that leads to the formation of a radical pair (hydrogenated 7AIH(●) radical and phenoxy PhO(●) radical). Both channels, CDPT and CPET, seem to be opened according to the ab initio calculations. However, the analysis of the ensemble of experimental and theoretical evidence indicates that the excited state tautomerization assisted by CDPT is quite unlikely to be responsible for the fast S(1) state deactivation. In contrast, the CPET mechanism is suggested to be the non-radiative process deactivating the S(1) state of the complex. In this mechanism, the lengthening of the OH distance of the PhOH molecule induces an electron transfer from PhOH to 7AI that is followed by a proton transfer in the same kinetic step. This process leads to the formation of the radical pair (7AIH(●)···PhO(●)) in the electronically excited state through a very low barrier or to the ion pair (7AIH(+)···PhO(-)) in the ground state. Moreover, it should be noted that, according to the calculations the πσ* state, which is responsible for the H loss in the free PhOH molecule, does not seem to be involved at all in the quenching process of the 7AI-PhOH complex.

Assuntos

RESUMO

A picosecond pump and probe experiment has been applied to study the excited state dynamics of 7-azaindole-water 1 ∶ 2 and 1 ∶ 3 clusters [7AI(H(2)O)(2,3)] in the gas phase. The vibrational-mode selective Excited-State-Triple-Proton Transfer (ESTPT) in 7AI(H(2)O)(2) proposed from the frequency-resolved study has been confirmed by picosecond decays. The decay times for the vibronic states involving the ESTPT promoting mode σ(1) (850-1000 ps) are much shorter than those for the other vibronic states (2100-4600 ps). In the (1 + 1) REMPI spectrum of 7AI(H(2)O)(3) measured by nanosecond laser pulses, the vibronic bands with an energy higher than 200 cm(-1) above the origin of the S(1) state become very weak. In contrast, the vibronic bands in the same region emerge in the (1 + 1') REMPI spectrum of 7AI(H(2)O)(3) with picosecond pulses. The decay times drastically decrease when increasing the vibrational energy above 200 cm(-1). Ab initio calculations show that a second stable "cyclic-nonplanar isomer" exists in addition to a "bridged-planar isomer", and that an isomerization from a bridged-planar isomer to a cyclic-nonplanar isomer is most probably responsible for the short lifetimes of the vibronic states of 7AI(H(2)O)(3).

Assuntos