Electronic and Vibrational Spectroscopy of 1-Methylthymine and its Water Clusters: The Dark State Survives Hydration

The tautomer-specific excited state dynamics of 2,6-diaminopurine using resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization and quantum chemical calculations

2,6-Diaminopurine (2,6-dAP) is an alternative nucleobase that potentially played a role in prebiotic chemistry. We studied its excited state dynamics in the gas phase by REMPI, IR-UV hole burning, and ps pump-probe spectroscopy and performed quantum chemical calculations at the SCS-ADC(2) level of theory to interpret the experimental results. We found the 9H tautomer to have a small barrier to ultrafast relaxation via puckering of its 6-membered ring. The 7H tautomer has a larger barrier to reach a conical intersection and also has a sizable triplet yield. These results are discussed relative to other purines, for which 9H tautomerization appears to be more photostable than 7H and homosubstituted purines appear to be less photostable than heterosubstituted or singly substituted purines.

Static embedding with pair coupled cluster doubles based methods

Quantum embedding methods have recently been significantly developed to model large molecular structures. This work proposes a novel wave function theory in a density functional theory (WTF-in-DFT) embedding scheme based on pair-coupled cluster doubles (pCCD)-type methods. While pCCD can reliably describe strongly-correlated systems with mean-field-like computational cost, the large extent of the dynamic correlation can be accounted for by (linearized) coupled-cluster corrections on top of the pCCD wave function. Here we focus on the linearized coupled-cluster singles and doubles (LCCSD) ansatz for electronic ground states and its extension to excited states within the equation of motion (EOM) formalism. We test our EOM-pCCD-LCCSD-in-DFT approach for the vertical excitation energies of the hydrogen-bonded water-ammonia complex, micro-solvated thymine, and uranyl tetrahalides (UO2X42-, X = F, Cl, Br). Furthermore, we assess the quality of the embedding potential using an orbital entanglement and correlation analysis. The approximate embedding models successfully capture changes in the excitation energies going from bare fragments to supramolecular structures and represent a promising computational method for excited states in large molecular systems.

Exploration of the theobromine-water dimer: comparison with DNA microhydration

Understanding the molecular basis of the appearance of life on Earth is an exciting research field. Many factors may have influenced the election of the molecules used by living beings and evolution may have modified those original compounds. In an attempt to understand the role played by intermolecular interactions in the election of CGAT as the alphabet of life, we present here a thorough experimental and computational study on the interaction of theobromine with water. Theobromine is a xanthine derivative, structurally related to the nucleobases, and also present in many living beings. The experimental results demonstrate that the most stable isomer of theobromine-water was formed and detected in supersonic expansions. This isomer very well resembles the structure of the dimers between nucleobases and water, offering similar values of binding energy. A comparison between the results obtained for theobromine-water with those reported in the literature for monohydrates of nucleobases is also offered.

Quantum Mechanical Studies on the Photophysics and the Photochemistry of Nucleic Acids and Nucleobases

The photophysics and photochemistry of DNA is of great importance due to the potential damage of the genetic code by UV light. Quantum mechanical studies have played a key role in interpretating the results of modern time-resolved pump-probe spectroscopy, and in elucidating the main photoactivated reactive paths. This review provides a concise, complete picture of the computational studies carried out, approximately, in the past decade. We start with an overview of the photophysics of the nucleobases in the gas phase and in solution. We discuss the proposed mechanisms for ultrafast decay to the ground state, that involve conical intersections, consider the role of triplet states, and analyze how the solvent modulates the photophysics. Then we move to larger systems, from dinucleotides to single- and double-stranded oligonucleotides. We focus on the possible role of charge transfer and delocalized or excitonic states in the photophysics of these systems and discuss the main photochemical paths. We finish with an outlook on the current challenges in the field and future directions of research.

Characterizing the dark state in thymine and uracil by double resonant spectroscopy and quantum computation

Double resonant spectroscopy characterizes both grounds state and dark excited state of uracil and thymine.

Microhydration effects on the electronic properties of protonated phenol: a theoretical study

The CC2 (second-order approximate coupled cluster method) has been employed to investigate microhydration effect on electronic properties of protonated phenol (PhH(+)) According to the CC2 calculation results on electronic excited states of microhydrated PhH(+), for the S1 and S2 electronic states, which are of (1)ππ* nature and belong to the A' representation of molecular Cs point group, a significant blue shift effect on the S1 and S2 electronic states, which are of 1ππ* nature and belong to the A' representation of molecular Cs point group, in comparison to corresponding transitions on bare cation (PhH(+)), has been predicted. Nevertheless, for the S3-S0 (1A'', 1σπ*) transition, a large red shift effect has been predicted. Furthermore, it has been found that the lowest (1)σπ* state plays a prominent role in the photochemistry of these systems. In the bare protonated phenol, the (1)σπ* state is a bound state with a broad potential curve along the OH stretching coordinate, while it is dissociative in microhydrated species. This indicates to a predissociation of the S1((1)ππ*) state by a low-lying (1)σπ* state, which leads the excited system to a concerted proton-transfer reaction from protonated chromophore to the solvent. The dissociative (1)σπ* state in monohydrated PhH(+) has small barrier, while increasing the solvent molecules up to three removes the barrier and consequently expedites the proton-transfer reaction dynamics.

Photophysics and photochemistry of thymine deoxy-dinucleotide in water: a PCM/TD-DFT quantum mechanical study

We here report a fully quantum mechanical study of the main photochemical and photophysical decay routes in aqueous solution of thymine deoxy-dinucleotide (TpT(-) and TpTNa) and of its analogue locked in C3-endo puckering, characterizing five different representative backbone conformers and discussing the chemical physical effects modulating the yield of the different photoproducts. Our approach is based on time-dependent DFT calculations, using the last generation M052X functional, whereas solvent effects are included by means of the polarizable continuum model. Especially when at least one of the sugars adopts C3-endo puckering, a barrierless path on the bright ππ* excitons leads to the S(1)/S(0) crossing region corresponding to the formation of cyclobutane pyrimidine dimer. Charge transfer excited states involving the transfer of an electron from the 5' Thy toward the 3' Thy are involved in the formation of the oxetane intermediate in the path leading to 6-4 pyrimidine pyrimidinone adducts. A non-negligible energy barrier is associated with this latter pathway, which is possible only when one of the two nucleotides adopts C2-endo puckering. Monomer-like decay pathways, involving ππ* or nπ* excited states localized on a single base, are shown to be operative also for loosely stacked bases.

Specific photodynamics in thymine clusters: the role of hydrogen bonding

A photoionization detected IR study of thymine and 1-methylthymine monohydrates and of their homodimers was carried out to shed some light on the structure of the thymine clusters whose complex photodynamics has recently been the subject of great interest. Under supersonic jet conditions, thymine forms doubly H-bonded cyclic clusters with water or another base preferentially via its N1-H group and the adjacent carbonyl group. This hydrate is of no biological relevance since the N1-H group is the sugar binding site in thymidine. On the other hand, 1-methylthymine forms the donor H-bonds only via the N3-H group. Hence, properties of the N1-H and the N3-H bound clusters of thymine can be studied using thymine and 1-methylthymine molecules, respectively. No biologically relevant conformations of the dimers and hydrates of thymine, contrary to those of 1-methylthymine, are observed under supersonic jet conditions. Thymine homodimer, which extensively fragments upon UV ionization by formation of a protonated monomer, exhibits two N1-H···O═C2 hydrogen bonds. The photodynamics of hydrated thymines is found to be extremely sensitive to the hydration site: ranging from an ultrafast relaxation in less than 100 fs up to formation of a dark state with the lifetime on the microsecond time scale.

Computational studies of the photophysics of neutral and zwitterionic amino acids in an aqueous environment: tyrosine-(H(2)O)(2) and tryptophan-(H(2)O)(2) clusters

Tyrosine-(H(2)O)(2) and tryptophan-(H(2)O)(2) clusters have been considered as models for the study of the photochemistry of neutral and zwitterionic tyrosine and tryptophan in an aqueous environment. It has been found that the detachment of neutral NH(3) in the S(1) state of the zwitterionic clusters leads to a low-lying conical intersection of the S(1) and S(0) energy surfaces. This conical intersection can provide the mechanism for efficient radiationless deactivation of the excited state back to the ground state or, alternatively, deamination (loss of ammonia). These results provide a mechanistic explanation of the efficient fluorescence quenching and the high quantum yield of ammonia in the UV photolysis of tyrosine and tryptophan in aqueous solution.