Medium-dependent interactions of quinones with cytosine and cytidine: A laser flash photolysis study with magnetic field effect

Potency of photoinduced electron transfer and antioxidant efficacy of pyrrole and pyridine based Cu(II)-Schiff complexes while binding with CT-DNA

Here we report a systematic and comparative study to define a correlation between the structure and function of a series of simple, biologically active small inorganic Schiff base copper complexes for the occurrence of charge transfer phenomenon in calf thymus DNA (CT-DNA) using transient absorption spectroscopy corroborated with magnetic field effect. Four copper(II) Schiff base complexes with differently substituted heterocyclic ligands with antioxidant activity have been used. The binding constants of the order of ∼ 10(4) support the moderate binding affinity of the complexes towards CT-DNA. The methyl-substituted pyrrole complex shows maximum binding affinity (Kb: 8.33 × 10(4)) compared to others. The occurrence of photoinduced electron transfer (PET) from CT-DNA to pyrrole containing complexes has been confirmed by identifying the corresponding transient radical ions whereas the extent of PET with pyridine substituted complexes is too small to be observed. The increase of the yield of radical ions in presence of magnetic field depicts that the initial spin correlation in geminate radical ion pair is triplet. The difference between experimental and calculated B½ values, the measure of hyperfine interactions (HFI) present in the system, arises due to hole hopping through intrastrand and interstrand DNA bases. The unsubstituted pyrrole complexes cleave DNA much more than the methyl-substituted one. Therefore, the probability of intrastrand superexchange increases with methyl-substituted complexes, that reduces the rate of hole hopping and hence the B½ value.

Solvation dynamics of a radical ion pair in micro-heterogeneous binary solvents: a semi-quantitative study utilizing MARY line-broadening experiments

This work aims at elucidating the mechanism of solvation of a radical ion pair (RIP) in a micro-heterogeneous binary solvent mixture using magnetically affected reaction yield (MARY) spectroscopy. For the exciplex-forming 9,10-dimethylanthracene/N,N-dimethylaniline system a comparative, composition-dependent MARY line-broadening study is undertaken in a heterogeneous (toluene/dimethylsulfoxide) and a quasi-homogenous (propyl acetate/butyronitrile) solvent mixture. The half-saturation field extrapolated to zero-quencher concentration, B(1/2), and the self-exchange rate constants are analyzed in the light of solvent dynamical properties of the mixtures and a dielectric continuum solvation model. The dependence of B(1/2) on the solvent composition is explained by cluster formation giving rise to shortened RIP lifetimes. The results are in qualitative agreement with the continuum solvation model suggesting that it could serve as a theoretical basis for quantitative modeling.