C. Dedonder-Lardeux

Excited-state hydrogen detachment and hydrogen transfer driven by repulsive 1πσ* states: A new paradigm for nonradiative decay in aromatic biomolecules

The combined results of ab initio electronic-structure calculations and spectroscopic investigations of jet-cooled molecules and clusters provide strong evidence of a surprisingly simple and general mechanistic picture of the nonradiative decay of biomolecules such as nucleic bases and aromatic amino acids. The key role in this picture is played by excited singlet states of πσ* character, which have repulsive potential-energy functions with respect to the stretching of OH or NH bonds. The 1πσ* potential-energy functions intersect not only the bound potential-energy functions of the 1ππ* excited states, but also that of the electronic ground state. Via predissociation of the 1ππ* states and a conical intersection with the ground state, the 1πσ* states trigger an ultrafast internal-conversion process, which is essential for the photostability of biomolecules. In protic solvents, the 1πσ* states promote a hydrogen-transfer process from the chromophore to the solvent. Calculations for chromophore–water clusters have shown that a spontaneous charge-separation process takes place in the solvent shell, yielding a microsolvated hydronium cation and a microsolvated electron. These results suggest that the basic mechanisms of the complex photochemistry of biomolecules in liquid water can be revealed by experimental and theoretical investigations of relatively small chromophore–water clusters.

Ultrafast deactivation mechanisms of protonated aromatic amino acids following UV excitation

Deactivation pathways of electronically excited states have been investigated in three protonated aromatic amino acids: tryptophan (Trp), tyrosine (Tyr) and phenylalanine (Phe). The protonated amino acids were generated by electrospray and excited with a 266 nm femtosecond laser, the subsequent decay of the excited states being monitored through fragmentation of the ions induced and/or enhanced by another femtosecond pulse at 800 nm. The excited state of TrpH+ decays in 380 fs and gives rise to two channels: hydrogen atom dissociation or internal conversion (IC). In TyrH, the decay is slowed down to 22.3 ps and the fragmentation efficiency of PheH+ is so low that the decay cannot be measured with the available laser. The variation of the excited state lifetime between TrpH+ and TyrH+ can be ascribed to energy differences between the dissociative pi sigma* state and the initially excited pi pi* state.

Intracluster hydrogen transfer followed by dissociation in the phenol–(NH3)3 excited state: PhOH(S1)–(NH3)3→PhO•+(NH4)(NH3)2

The study of the phenol–(NH3)3 cluster with two-color two-photon ionization shows that the main ion observed with delays between the lasers up to a few hundred nanoseconds is the (NH4)+(NH3)2 fragment, resulting from direct ionization of the (NH4)(NH3)2 product coming from the reaction: PhOH(S1)–(NH3)3→PhO•+(NH4)(NH3)2.

Photo-induced dissociation of protonated tryptophan TrpH+: A direct dissociation channel in the excited states controls the hydrogen atom loss

Protonated tryptophan ions (TrpH+) are generated by electrospray ionization and dissociated by irradiation with a UV laser. Different photo-fragments are observed among which a new photo-induced dissociation channel leading to the loss of a hydrogen atom that is not observed in conventional collision-induced dissociation. A tryptophan radical cation (Trp+) is produced in this process that subsequently leads to the m/z = 130 fragment through a Cα–Cβ bond cleavage, a typical fragmentation product of the Trp+ radical cation generated either by electron impact or by photo-ionization. These results can be understood considering the excited states of protonated tryptophan: UV excitation of TrpH+ produces a mixed ππ*/πσ* state, the ππ* state being mainly located on the indole chromophore while the πσ* is mainly on the protonated terminal amino group. This πσ* state is repulsive along the N–H bond coordinate and leads either to hydrogen atom detachment producing a Trp+ radical cation that undergoes further fragmentations or to internal conversion to the ground state of the protonated TrpH+ ion.

Comprehensive characterization of the photodissociation pathways of protonated tryptophan

The photofragmentation of protonated tryptophan has been investigated in a unique experimental setup, in which ion and neutral issued from the photofragmentation are detected in coincidence, in time and in position. From these data are extracted the kinetic energy, the number of neutral fragments associated with an ion, their masses, and the order of the fragmentation steps. Moreover, the fragmentation time scale ranging from tens of nanoseconds to milliseconds is obtained. From all these data, a comprehensive fragmentation mechanism is proposed.

Hydrogen transfer in excited pyrrole–ammonia clusters

The excited state hydrogen atom transfer reaction (ESHT) has been studied in pyrrole-ammonia clusters [PyH-(NH(3))(n)+hnu-->Py.+.NH(4)(NH(3))(n-1)]. The reaction is clearly evidenced through two-color R2P1 experiments using delayed ionization and presents a threshold around 235 nm (5.3 eV). The cluster dynamics has also been explored by picosecond time scale experiments. The clusters decay in the 10-30 ps range with lifetimes increasing with the cluster size. The appearance times for the reaction products are similar to the decay times of the parent clusters. Evaporation processes are also observed in competition with the reaction, and the cluster lifetime after evaporation is estimated to be around 10 ns. The kinetic energy of the reaction products is fairly large and the energy distribution seems quasi mono kinetic. These experimental results rule out the hypothesis that the reaction proceeds through a direct N-H bond rupture but rather imply the existence of a fairly long-lived intermediate state. Calculations performed at the CASSCF/CASMP2 level confirm the experimental observations, and provide some hints regarding the reaction mechanism.

Structure of the Calix[4]arene−(H2O) Cluster: The World’s Smallest Cup of Water†

The structure of the calix[4]arene(C4A)-(H(2)O) cluster formed in a supersonic beam has been investigated by mass-selected resonant two-photon ionization (R2PI) spectroscopy, IR-UV double resonance spectroscopy, IR photodissociation (IRPD) spectroscopy and by high-level quantum chemical calculations. The IR-UV double resonance spectrum of C4A-(H(2)O) exhibits a broad and strong hydrogen-bonded OH stretching band at 3160 cm(-1) and a weak asymmetric OH stretching band at 3700 cm(-1). The IRPD measurement of the cluster produced a value of 3140 cm(-1) for the C4A-(H(2)O) --> C4A + H(2)O dissociation energy. High-level electronic structure calculations at the MP2 level of theory with basis sets up to quadruple-zeta quality suggest that the endo-isomer (water inside the C4A cavity) is approximately 1100 cm(-1) more stable than the exo-isomer (water hydrogen bonded to the rim of C4A). The endo-isomer has a best-computed (at the MP2/aug-cc-pVQZ level) value of 3127 cm(-1) for the binding energy, just approximately 15 cm(-1) shy of the experimentally determined threshold and an IR spectrum in excellent agreement with the experimentally observed one. In contrast, the B3LYP density functional fails to even predict a stable structure for the endo-isomer demonstrating the inability of that level of theory to describe the delicate balance between structures exhibiting cumulative OH-pi H-bonding and dipole-dipole interactions (endo-isomer) when compared to the ones emanating from maximizing the cooperative effects associated with the formation of hydrogen bonded homodromic networks (exo-isomer). The comparison of the experimental results with the ones from high-level electronic structure calculations therefore unambiguously assign the endo-isomer as the global minimum of the C4A-(H(2)O) cluster, worlds smallest cup of water.

UV photoinduced dynamics in protonated aromatic amino acid

UV photoinduced fragmentation of protonated aromatic amino acids has emerged the last few years, coming from a situation where nothing was known to what we think a good understanding of the optical properties. We will mainly focus this review on the tryptophan case. Three groups have mostly done spectroscopic studies and one has mainly been involved in dynamics studies of the excited states in the femtosecond/picosecond range and also in the fragmentation kinetics from nanosecond to millisecond. All these data, along with high level ab initio calculations, have shed light on the role of the different electronic states of the protonated molecules upon the fragmentation mechanisms.

External electric field effect on the lowest excited states of indole: ab initio and molecular dynamics study

The external electric field effect on the lowest excited states of indole was studied with the aid of second-order Moller–Plesset perturbation theory based on the complete-active-space self-consistent-field wave function (CASMP2) and the time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) methods. The order of magnitude of the electric field experienced by indole in water and by the indole chromophore of tryptophan within a protein in aqueous environment was estimated using molecular dynamics simulations with the Amber force field. It has been shown that, at 300 K, the magnitude of the field is fluctuating significantly up to 5 × 10−3 a.u. The CASMP2 and TDDFT energy of the lowest ππ* singlet state (Lb) shows only a relatively small variation within the limit of the applied field, but the next ππ* singlet state (La) and the lowest πσ* singlet state of Rydberg character are strongly influenced by the field, and for |E|≅5 × 10−3 a.u. either the strongly emitting La(ππ*) state or the essentially “dark” πσ* state (depending on the orientation of the electric field vector) becomes the lowest excited singlet state of the system. Since the lifetime of the emitting singlet state is governed by the ππ*/πσ* crossing, as demonstrated in many experiments in clusters, this local field effect provides an attractive mechanistic picture for understanding the variations of the tryptophan fluorescence lifetime in proteins.

Fluorescence excitation spectrum of the Si–Ar van der Waals complex

We report here the fluorescence excitations spectrum of the Si–Ar van der Waals complex in the region of the (3p4s)3 P–(3p 2)3 P atomic transition. Long progressions are observed, which have been assigned to a Π–Σ transition. The potential curves derived from the analysis of these progressions are discussed in terms of effects of spin–orbit coupling on van der Waals interactions.