Proton-Induced Charge Transfer on Imidazole and 2-Aminoimidazole. Role of the Substituent and Influence of Stepwise Hydration

The behavior of potential prebiotic species in space is of main concern in the chemistry at the origin of life. Their reactivity or stability in spatial conditions, under strong UV radiations or ion bombardments, remains an open question and needs wide investigations. As protons are by far the most abundant ions in space, we focus presently on proton-induced collisions on imidazole and 2-aminoimidazole evidenced as important prebiotic RNA intermediates. Unconstrained full optimization of the structures was performed with B3LYP/cc-pVTZ model chemistry. The calculations were performed in a wide collision energy range in order to model various astrophysical environments, from eV in the interstellar medium, up to keV for solar winds or supernovae shock-wave protons. Such a study provides for the first time a theoretical insight on the influence of the amino substituent on the proton-induced charge transfer. We evaluated the role of icy grain environments through a cluster approach modeling the effect of a stepwise microhydration on the process. Comparisons with oxygenated and sulfurated analogues address further qualitative trends on the respective stability or reactivity of such heterocycles which may be of tremendous interest in prebiotic chemistry. Charge transfer appears to be quite efficient for imidazole compounds and their sulfurated analogue compared to the oxygenated heterocycle.

Role of sulfur in proton-induced collisions of RNA prebiotic precursors

A main objective in the synthesis of prebiotic compounds is to remain consistent with reasonable geochemical scenarios, while avoiding concomitant formation of undesirable by-products. In this context, 2-aminothiazole has shown enhanced selectivity in the addition reaction with sugars promoting interest in this sulfur species compared to its oxygenated analogue, 2-aminooxazole. More generally, the role of sulfur in prebiotic chemistry needs to be widely investigated with regard to the numerous sulfur-containing molecules detected recently in different astrophysical environments. However, in parallel to the problematic formation of building blocks of life, how prebiotic molecules could survive under extreme astrophysical conditions remains an open question. Intense UV radiation or ion bombardment may indeed lead to fragmentation and the specific behaviour of sulfur compounds has to be addressed. Focusing on its potentiality in prebiotic multistep synthesis, a detailed analysis of the proton impact on 2-aminothiazole has been investigated theoretically in a wide collision energy range chosen to model various astrophysical environments. The comparison with its oxygenated analogue may suggest qualitative trends on their respective stability under such processes which could be of crucial interest for prebiotic synthesis.

Gold with +4 oxidation state compounds: mass spectrometric and theoretical characterization of AuO2+

Using an ab initio methodology and mass spectrometric study we identify AuO²⁺ as a metastable species in the gas phase.

Dissociation of GaN2+ and AlN2+ in APT: Analysis of experimental measurements

The use of a tip-shaped sample for the atom probe tomography technique offers the unique opportunity to analyze the dynamics of molecular ions in strong DC fields. We investigate here the stability of AlN²⁺ and GaN²⁺ dications emitted from an Al_0.25Ga_0.75N sample in a joint theoretical and experimental study. Despite the strong chemical resemblance of these two molecules, we observe only stable AlN²⁺, while GaN²⁺ can only be observed as a transient species. We simulate the emission dynamics of these ions on field-perturbed potential energy surfaces obtained from quantum chemical calculations. We show that the dissociation is governed by two independent processes. For all bound states, a mechanical dissociation is induced by the distortion of the potential energy surface in the close vicinity of the emitting tip. In the specific case of GaN²⁺, the relatively small electric dipole of the dication in its ground 1³Σ^- and excited 1¹Δ states induces a weak coupling with the electric field so that the mechanical dissociation into Ga⁺ + N⁺ lasts for sufficient time to be observed. By contrast, the AlN²⁺ mechanical dissociation leads to Al²⁺ + N which cannot be observed as a correlated event. For some deeply bound singlet excited states, the spin-orbit coupling with lower energy triplet states gives another chance of dissociation by system inter-system crossing with specific patterns observed experimentally in a correlated time of flight map.

Proton-induced collision dynamics on potential prebiotic sulfur species

The formation of the building blocks of life and how they could survive under harsh astrophysical environments remains an open question of prebiotic chemistry. Effectively, ion bombardments or intense UV radiation may drive the destruction of prebiotic compounds. The possible role of sulfur in such processes is addressed here for the first time, by comparing directly proton-induced charge transfer for sulfur containing molecules and that for related COMs. The proton collision on mercaptoacetonitrile HSCH2C[triple bond, length as m-dash]N conformers has thus been investigated theoretically in a wide impact energy range modelling various astrophysical environments and compared to related COMs, namely HCN oligomers, in order to exhibit qualitative tendencies.

Theoretical investigation of proton collisions on prebiotic candidates: hydrogen cyanide polymers

One of the major concerns in prebiotic chemistry is the formation and destruction routes of prebiotic compounds in space. As detected for a long time, hydrogen cyanide (HCN) has been suggested to be a feedstock molecule at the origin of life driving easy oligomerization, in particular to form adenine. This may focus on its first oligomers because its dimer cyanomethanimine was recently observed in star-forming regions, or its trimer aminomalononitrile. With regard to the assumption of an extra-terrestrial origin of life, the stability of such species under ultraviolet radiation or in ion-collisions is an open question. Thus, we investigated theoretically the proton collisions with dimer and trimer isomers of HCN in a wide impact energy range to model various astrophysical environments and exhibit qualitative tendencies.

A novel analytical potential function for dicationic diatomic molecular systems based on deformed exponential function

In this paper, we propose a new alternative analytical function aiming to better describe the potential energy curves of the doubly charged diatomic molecules. To achieve this goal, we modified an existing potential function in the literature to describe dicationic diatomic molecules using the deformed exponential function. We generated the potential energy curve of the testing group of dicationic diatomic molecules [Formula: see text], BH²⁺, [Formula: see text] and NH²⁺ by means of the CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVQZ level of theory. To validate this new function, we also calculated the spectroscopic constants and the rovibrational spectra for the electronic state [Formula: see text]of the [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] systems using the Dunham and discrete variable representation methods. For BH²⁺ and NH²⁺ molecules, despite exhibiting a local minimum in the potential energy curve, no vibrational levels are supported, so the spectroscopic constants for these poorly bound systems are invalidated. The fitting accuracy had a better performance over the original potential for describing dicationic diatomic systems, considering that the discrete variable representation method resulted in a similar vibrational structure described in the literature. This fact can be explained due to the deformed function's flexibility.

Proton-Induced Collisions on Potential Prebiotic Species

With regard to the fascinating question of the origin of life, special interest has been devoted to potential prebiotic molecules which could drive the emergence of life. In the widely discussed hypothesis of a possible exogen apparition of life, the transport of those prebiotic species and their survival under spatial conditions is of strong interest. In particular their stability under solar radiation or in collisions with bare nucleus has to be considered. In that sense, taking account of the abundance of protons in ionized clouds of the interstellar medium, we have developed a detailed theoretical study of the charge transfer collision dynamics induced by impact of protons on a series of possible prebiotic compounds. Three main types of molecules have been considered: first of all the DNA and RNA building blocks with on a one hand the nucleobases uracil and thymine, and on the other hand the 2-deoxy-D-ribose sugar skeleton in its furanose and pyranose forms. The study has been extended to the 2-aminooxazole suggested to be a possible precursor of RNA nucleotides. The theoretical treatment involves ab-initio quantum chemistry molecular calculations followed by a semiclassical collision dynamics. Some qualitative trends may be suggested for the proton-induced damage of such prebiotic species.

Influence of microhydration on the structures and proton-induced charge transfer in RNA intermediates

Solvation effects are of major interest in the context of radiation damage, due to their potential applications in cancer therapy. Reliable modeling of the solvent is, however, quite challenging, and numerous studies have been devoted to isolated biomolecules and stepwise-hydrated molecules in which the amount of solvent is controlled one molecule at a time. The influence of stepwise hydration on radiation damage is investigated here using the example of proton-induced charge transfer in two biomolecular targets. Uracil has been widely investigated both experimentally and theoretically in this context, and 2-aminooxazole was recently shown to be a potentially important intermediate in prebiotic chemistry. Focusing here on doubly hydrated biomolecules, stable structures and infrared spectra were obtained by combining the results of molecular dynamics simulations with those of quantum chemistry calculations performed at the density-functional theory level with the double hybrid M06-2X functional. The charge-transfer cross-sections upon proton impact were obtained from ab initio molecular calculations and after applying a semi-classical approach to investigate the collision. Our results suggest a significant relationship between the detailed hydration structure and the efficacy of proton-induced charge transfer, highlighting the competing roles of inter- and intramolecular hydrogen bonding.

Stepwise Hydration of 2-Aminooxazole: Theoretical Insight into the Structure, Finite Temperature Behavior and Proton-Induced Charge Transfer

It was recently suggested that 2-aminooxazole (AO) could contribute to the formation of RNA nucleotides on primitive earth. In this article we have considered by means of computational modeling the influence of microhydration on the structural and spectral properties of this potential prebiotic molecule. The stable structures of AO(H2O)n were obtained first by sampling the potential energy landscapes of clusters containing up to n = 20 water molecules, using a simple but reasonably accurate force field and replica-exchange molecular dynamics simulations. Through reoptimization using an explicit description of electronic structure at the level of density functional theory with the M06-2X functional, the formation energies, ionization energies and electron affinities were determined in the vertical and adiabatic treatments, as well as vibrational and optical spectra covering the far-IR, mid-IR, and lower part of the UV ranges. The results generally show a clear segregation between the aminooxazole solute and the water molecules, a water cluster being formed near the nitrogen and amino group side leaving the hydrocarbon side dry even at temperatures corresponding to the liquid state. The spectral signatures generally concur and show distinct contributions of the solute and solvent, spectral shifts to lower energies being in agreement with earlier calculations in bulk solvent. We have also investigated the importance of microhydration on the charge transfer cross section upon collision with a proton, thereby extending an earlier investigation on the bare AO molecule. The presence of water molecules generally reduces the propensity for charge transfer at small sizes, but the influence of the solvent steadily decreases in larger droplets.

Proton-induced damage on 2-aminooxazole, a potential prebiotic compound

Among the complex organic molecules detected in space, in the interstellar medium, on meteorites or comets, special interest is devoted to the potentially exobiologic-relevant species. In the hypothesis, widely discussed, of a possible exogen origin of life, the transport of such compounds and their survival is indeed a fundamental question. Recently, suggestion has been made that 2-aminooxazole could be a possible precursor of RNA nucleotides on early earth and its stability to UV radiation or to collisions may be determinant. We have thus undertaken a detailed theoretical study of the charge transfer collision dynamics induced by the impact of 2-aminooxazole with protons, which could be an important process in particular in proton-rich environments. The theoretical treatment has been developed through ab initio quantum chemistry molecular calculations followed by semiclassical collision dynamics. The results are compared to previous investigations on DNA and RNA building blocks in order to extract some qualitative trends in the damage of prebiotic species under spatial radiation.

Looking at radiation damage on prebiotic building blocks

A number of complex organic molecules have been detected in the interstellar medium, as well as in meteorites or comets. Among them, some exobiologic-relevant molecules have attracted particular interest. In the hypothesis of an exogen transport of prebiotic building blocks at the origin of life, the survival of such species and particularly their resistance to the solar UV radiation or cosmic rays is a key issue. For that purpose, we have performed a theoretical approach of the charge transfer dynamics induced by collision of protons with nucleobases and the 2-deoxy-d-ribose sugar moiety in a wide collision energy range. Calculations have been carried out by means of ab initio quantum chemistry molecular methods and compared to previous theoretical results using carbon projectile ions. Qualitative trends can be exhibited on DNA or RNA building blocks damage, which may concern studies on prebiotic species under spatial radiation.