1
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Stolar T, Pearce BK, Etter M, Truong KN, Ostojić T, Krajnc A, Mali G, Rossi B, Molčanov K, Lončarić I, Meštrović E, Užarević K, Grisanti L. Base-pairing of uracil and 2,6-diaminopurine: from cocrystals to photoreactivity. iScience 2024; 27:109894. [PMID: 38783999 PMCID: PMC11112615 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109894] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2023] [Revised: 12/18/2023] [Accepted: 05/01/2024] [Indexed: 05/25/2024] Open
Abstract
We show that the non-canonical nucleobase 2,6-diaminopurine (D) spontaneously base pairs with uracil (U) in water and the solid state without the need to be attached to the ribose-phosphate backbone. Depending on the reaction conditions, D and U assemble in thermodynamically stable hydrated and anhydrated D-U base-paired cocrystals. Under UV irradiation, an aqueous solution of D-U base-pair undergoes photochemical degradation, while a pure aqueous solution of U does not. Our simulations suggest that D may trigger the U photodimerization and show that complementary base-pairing modifies the photochemical properties of nucleobases, which might have implications for prebiotic chemistry.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomislav Stolar
- Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička c. 54, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
- Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), Richard-Willstätter-Straße 11, 12489 Berlin, Germany
| | - Ben K.D. Pearce
- Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Martin Etter
- Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Notkestraße 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany
| | - Khai-Nghi Truong
- Rigaku Europe SE, Hugenottenallee 167, 63263 Neu-Isenburg, Germany
| | - Tea Ostojić
- Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička c. 54, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Andraž Krajnc
- National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Gregor Mali
- National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Barbara Rossi
- Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste, Strada Statale 14 km 163.5, 34149 Trieste, Italy
| | | | - Ivor Lončarić
- Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička c. 54, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Ernest Meštrović
- Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology, University of Zagreb, Trg Marka Marulića 19, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
| | | | - Luca Grisanti
- Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička c. 54, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
- National Research Council - Materials Foundry Institute (CNR-IOM) c/o SISSA (International School for Advanced Studies), Via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy
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2
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Bezabih MS, Kaliakin DS, Blanco-González A, Barneschi L, Tarnovsky AN, Olivucci M. Comparative Study of Uracil Excited-State Photophysics in Water and Acetonitrile via RMS-CASPT2-Driven Quantum-Classical Trajectories. J Phys Chem B 2023; 127:10871-10879. [PMID: 38055701 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.3c06433] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/08/2023]
Abstract
We present a nonadiabatic molecular dynamics study of the ultrafast processes occurring in uracil upon UV light absorption, leading to electronic excitation and subsequent nonradiative decay. Previous studies have indicated that the mechanistic details of this process are drastically different depending on whether the process takes place in the gas phase, acetonitrile, or water. However, such results have been produced using quantum chemical methods that did not incorporate both static and dynamic electron correlation. In order to assess the previously proposed mechanisms, we simulate the photodynamics of uracil in the three environments mentioned above using quantum-classical trajectories and, for solvated uracil, hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) models driven by the rotated multistate complete active space second-order perturbation (RMS-CASPT2) method. To do so, we exploit the gradient recently made available in OpenMolcas and compare the results to those obtained using the complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) method only accounting for static electron correlation. We show that RMS-CASPT2 produces, in general, a mechanistic picture different from the one obtained at the CASSCF level but confirms the hypothesis advanced on the basis of previous ROKS and TDDFT studies thus highlighting the importance of incorporating dynamic electron correlation in the investigation of ultrafast electronic deactivation processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Meseret Simachew Bezabih
- Department of Chemistry, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio 43403, United States
| | - Danil S Kaliakin
- Department of Chemistry, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio 43403, United States
| | | | - Leonardo Barneschi
- Dipartimento di Biotechnologie, Chimica e Farmacia, Università di Siena, I-53100 Siena, Italy
| | - Alexander N Tarnovsky
- Department of Chemistry, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio 43403, United States
| | - Massimo Olivucci
- Department of Chemistry, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio 43403, United States
- Dipartimento di Biotechnologie, Chimica e Farmacia, Università di Siena, I-53100 Siena, Italy
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3
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Taylor JT, Tozer DJ, Curchod BFE. On the description of conical intersections between excited electronic states with LR-TDDFT and ADC(2). J Chem Phys 2023; 159:214115. [PMID: 38059547 DOI: 10.1063/5.0176140] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2023] [Accepted: 11/14/2023] [Indexed: 12/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Conical intersections constitute the conceptual bedrock of our working understanding of ultrafast, nonadiabatic processes within photochemistry (and photophysics). Accurate calculation of potential energy surfaces within the vicinity of conical intersections, however, still poses a serious challenge to many popular electronic structure methods. Multiple works have reported on the deficiency of methods like linear-response time-dependent density functional theory within the adiabatic approximation (AA LR-TDDFT) or algebraic diagrammatic construction to second-order [ADC(2)]-approaches often used in excited-state molecular dynamics simulations-to describe conical intersections between the ground and excited electronic states. In the present study, we focus our attention on conical intersections between excited electronic states and probe the ability of AA LR-TDDFT and ADC(2) to describe their topology and topography, using protonated formaldimine and pyrazine as two exemplar molecules. We also take the opportunity to revisit the performance of these methods in describing conical intersections involving the ground electronic state in protonated formaldimine-highlighting in particular how the intersection ring exhibited by AA LR-TDDFT can be perceived either as a (near-to-linear) seam of intersection or two interpenetrating cones, depending on the magnitude of molecular distortions within the branching space.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jack T Taylor
- Department of Chemistry, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom
| | - David J Tozer
- Department of Chemistry, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom
| | - Basile F E Curchod
- Centre for Computational Chemistry, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock's Close, Bristol BS8 1TS, United Kingdom
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4
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Orimo N, Yamamoto YI, Karashima S, Boyer A, Suzuki T. Ultrafast Electronic Relaxation in 6-Methyluracil and 5-Fluorouracil in Isolated and Aqueous Conditions: Substituent and Solvent Effects. J Phys Chem Lett 2023; 14:2758-2763. [PMID: 36897645 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.3c00195] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
We report ultrafast extreme ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy of 6-methyluracil (6mUra) and 5-fluorouracil (5FUra) in the gas phase and 6mUra and 5-fluorouridine in an aqueous environment. In the gas phase, internal conversion (IC) occurs from 1ππ* to 1nπ* states in tens of femtoseconds, followed by intersystem crossing to the 3ππ* state in several picoseconds. In an aqueous solution, 6mUra undergoes IC almost exclusively to the ground state (S0) in about 100 fs, which is essentially the same process as that for unsubstituted uracil, but much faster than that for thymine (5-methyluracil). The different dynamics for C5 and C6 methylation suggest that IC from 1ππ* to S0 is facilitated by out-of-plane (OOP) motion of the C5 substituent. The slow IC for C5-substituted molecules in an aqueous environment is ascribed to the solvent reorganization that is required for this OOP motion to occur. The slow rate for 5FUrd may arise in part from an increased barrier height due to C5 fluorination.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natsumi Orimo
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa-Oiwakecho, Sakyo-Ku, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
| | - Yo-Ichi Yamamoto
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa-Oiwakecho, Sakyo-Ku, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
| | - Shutaro Karashima
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa-Oiwakecho, Sakyo-Ku, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
| | - Alexie Boyer
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa-Oiwakecho, Sakyo-Ku, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
| | - Toshinori Suzuki
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa-Oiwakecho, Sakyo-Ku, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
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5
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Miura Y, Yamamoto YI, Karashima S, Orimo N, Hara A, Fukuoka K, Ishiyama T, Suzuki T. Formation of Long-Lived Dark States during Electronic Relaxation of Pyrimidine Nucleobases Studied Using Extreme Ultraviolet Time-Resolved Photoelectron Spectroscopy. J Am Chem Soc 2023; 145:3369-3381. [PMID: 36724068 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.2c09803] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/02/2023]
Abstract
Ultrafast electronic relaxation of nucleobases from 1ππ* states to the ground state (S0) is considered essential for the photostability of DNA. However, transient absorption spectroscopy (TAS) has indicated that some nucleobases in aqueous solutions create long-lived 1nπ*/3ππ* dark states from the 1ππ* states with a high quantum yield of 0.4-0.5. We investigated electronic relaxation in pyrimidine nucleobases in both aqueous solutions and the gas phase using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy. Femtosecond EUV probe pulses cause ionization from all electronic states involved in the relaxation process, providing a clear overview of the electronic dynamics. The 1nπ* quantum yields for aqueous cytidine and uracil (Ura) derivatives were found to be considerably lower (<0.07) than previous estimates reported by TAS. On the other hand, aqueous thymine (Thy) and thymidine exhibited a longer 1ππ* lifetime and a higher quantum yield (0.12-0.22) for the 1nπ* state. A similar trend was found for isolated Thy and Ura in the gas phase: the 1ππ* lifetimes are 39 and 17 fs and the quantum yield for 1nπ* are 1.0 and 0.45 for Thy and Ura, respectively. The result indicates that single methylation to the C5 position hinders the out-of-plane deformation that drives the system to the conical intersection region between 1ππ* and S0, providing a large impact on the photophysics/photochemistry of a pyrimidine nucleobase. The significant reduction of 1nπ* yield in aqueous solution is ascribed to the destabilization of the 1nπ* state induced by hydrogen bonding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuta Miura
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa-Oiwakecho, Sakyo-Ku, Kyoto606-8502, Japan
| | - Yo-Ichi Yamamoto
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa-Oiwakecho, Sakyo-Ku, Kyoto606-8502, Japan
| | - Shutaro Karashima
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa-Oiwakecho, Sakyo-Ku, Kyoto606-8502, Japan
| | - Natsumi Orimo
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa-Oiwakecho, Sakyo-Ku, Kyoto606-8502, Japan
| | - Ayano Hara
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa-Oiwakecho, Sakyo-Ku, Kyoto606-8502, Japan
| | - Kanae Fukuoka
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa-Oiwakecho, Sakyo-Ku, Kyoto606-8502, Japan
| | - Tatsuya Ishiyama
- Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, University of Toyama, Toyama930-8555, Japan
| | - Toshinori Suzuki
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa-Oiwakecho, Sakyo-Ku, Kyoto606-8502, Japan
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6
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Tan C, Wang S, Yang H, Huang Q, Li S, Liu X, Ye H, Zhang G. Understanding the interaction of nucleotides with UVC light: an insight from quantum chemical calculation-based findings. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2023; 25:3270-3278. [PMID: 36625732 DOI: 10.1039/d2cp05054d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
Short-wave ultraviolet (also called UVC) irradiation is a well-adopted method of viral inactivation due to its ability to damage genetic material. A fundamental problem with the UVC inactivation method is that its mechanism of action on viruses is still unknown at the molecular level. To address this problem, herein we investigate the response mechanism of genome materials to UVC light by means of quantum chemical calculations. The spectral properties of four nucleotides, namely, adenine, cytosine, guanine, and uracil, are mainly focused on. Meanwhile, the transition state and reaction rate constant of uracil molecules are also considered to demonstrate the difficulty level of adjacent nucleotide reaction without and with UVC irradiation. The results show that the peak wavelengths are 248.7 nm, 226.1 nm (252.7 nm), 248.3 nm, and 205.8 nm (249.2 nm) for adenine, cytosine, guanine, and uracil nucleotides, respectively. Besides, the reaction rate constants of uracil molecules are 6.419 × 10-49 s-1 M-1 and 5.436 × 1011 s-1 M-1 for the ground state and excited state, respectively. Their corresponding half-life values are 1.56 × 1048 s and 1.84 × 10-12 s. This directly suggests that the molecular reaction between nucleotides is a photochemical process and the reaction without UVC irradiation almost cannot occur.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chunjian Tan
- Electronic Components, Technology and Materials, Delft University of Technology, 2628 CD Delft, The Netherlands. .,Engineering Research Center of Integrated Circuits for Next-Generation Communications, Ministry of Education, School of Microelectronics, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, P. R. China.
| | - Shaogang Wang
- Electronic Components, Technology and Materials, Delft University of Technology, 2628 CD Delft, The Netherlands. .,Engineering Research Center of Integrated Circuits for Next-Generation Communications, Ministry of Education, School of Microelectronics, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, P. R. China.
| | - Huiru Yang
- Engineering Research Center of Integrated Circuits for Next-Generation Communications, Ministry of Education, School of Microelectronics, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, P. R. China.
| | - Qianming Huang
- Engineering Research Center of Integrated Circuits for Next-Generation Communications, Ministry of Education, School of Microelectronics, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, P. R. China.
| | - Shizhen Li
- Engineering Research Center of Integrated Circuits for Next-Generation Communications, Ministry of Education, School of Microelectronics, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, P. R. China.
| | - Xu Liu
- Electronic Components, Technology and Materials, Delft University of Technology, 2628 CD Delft, The Netherlands. .,Engineering Research Center of Integrated Circuits for Next-Generation Communications, Ministry of Education, School of Microelectronics, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, P. R. China.
| | - Huaiyu Ye
- Engineering Research Center of Integrated Circuits for Next-Generation Communications, Ministry of Education, School of Microelectronics, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, P. R. China.
| | - Guoqi Zhang
- Electronic Components, Technology and Materials, Delft University of Technology, 2628 CD Delft, The Netherlands.
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7
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Milovanović B, Novak J, Etinski M, Domcke W, Došlić N. On the propensity of formation of cyclobutane dimers in face-to-face and face-to-back uracil stacks in solution. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2022; 24:14836-14845. [PMID: 35697028 DOI: 10.1039/d2cp00495j] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
UV irradiation of RNA leads to the formation of intra- and inter-strand crosslinks of cyclobutane type. Despite the importance of this reaction, relatively little is known about how the mutual orientation of the two bases affects the outcome of the reaction. Here we report a comparative nonadiabatic molecular dynamics study of face-to-back (F2B) and face-to-face (F2F) stacked uracil-water clusters. The computations were performed using the second-order algebraic-diagrammatic-construction (ADC(2)) method. We found that F2B stacked uracil-water clusters either relax non-reactively to the ground state by an ethylenic twist around the CC bond or remain in the lowest nπ* state in which the two bases gradually move away from each other. This finding is consistent with the low propensity for the formation of intra-strand cyclobutane dimers between adjacent RNA bases. On the contrary, in F2F stacked uracil-water clusters, in addition to non-reactive deactivation, we found a pro-reactive deactivation pathway, which may lead to the formation of cyclobutane uracil dimers in the electronic ground state. On a qualitative level, the observed photodynamics of F2F stacked uracil-water clusters explains the greater propensity of RNA to form inter-strand cyclobutane-type crosslinks.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jurica Novak
- Department of Biotechnology, University of Rijeka, HR-51000 Rijeka, Croatia.,Scientific and Educational Center "Biomedical Technologies" School of Medical Biology, South Ural State University, RU-454080, Chelyabinsk, Russia.,Center for Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity, University of Rijeka, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia
| | - Mihajlo Etinski
- University of Belgrade, Faculty of Physical Chemistry, Belgrade, Serbia
| | - Wolfgang Domcke
- Department of Chemistry, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany
| | - Nađa Došlić
- Department of Physical Chemistry, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Zagreb, Croatia.
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8
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Understanding the Photolysis of CH 3ONO 2 with the On-the-fly Nonadiabatic Dynamics Simulation at the ADC(2) Level. CHINESE J CHEM PHYS 2022. [DOI: 10.1063/1674-0068/cjcp2201013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
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9
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Huang X, Xie W, Došlić N, Gelin MF, Domcke W. Ab Initio Quasiclassical Simulation of Femtosecond Time-Resolved Two-Dimensional Electronic Spectra of Pyrazine. J Phys Chem Lett 2021; 12:11736-11744. [PMID: 34851116 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c03589] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Two-dimensional (2D) electronic spectroscopy is a powerful nonlinear technique which provides spectroscopic information on two frequency axes as well as dynamical information as a function of the so-called waiting time. Herein, an ab initio theoretical framework for the simulation of electronic 2D spectra has been developed. The method is based on the classical approximation to the doorway-window representation of three-pulse photon-echo signals and the description of nuclear motion by classical trajectories. Nonadiabatic effects are taken into account by a trajectory surface-hopping algorithm. 2D electronic spectra were simulated with ab initio on-the-fly trajectory calculations using the ADC(2) electronic-structure method for the pyrazine molecule, which is a benchmark system for ultrafast radiationless decay through conical intersections. It is demonstrated that 2D spectroscopy with subfemtosecond UV pulses can provide unprecedented detailed information on the ultrafast photodynamics of polyatomic molecules.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiang Huang
- Department of Chemistry, Technical University of Munich, Garching, D-85747, Germany
| | - Weiwei Xie
- Institute of Physical Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, 76131, Germany
| | - Nađa Došlić
- Department of Physical Chemistry, Ruder Boscovic Institute, Zagreb, HR-10000, Croatia
| | - Maxim F Gelin
- School of Sciences, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, 310018, China
| | - Wolfgang Domcke
- Department of Chemistry, Technical University of Munich, Garching, D-85747, Germany
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10
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Fındık V, Fındık BK, Aviyente V, Monari A. Origins of the photoinitiation capacity of aromatic thiols as photoinitiatiors: a computational study. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2021; 23:24377-24385. [PMID: 34676839 DOI: 10.1039/d1cp04345e] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
In this work, we report the photophysical properties of three thiol derivatives, commonly used as photoinitiators in thiol-ene free radical polymerization, the ultimate goal being to rationalize the main reason behind the photoinitiation efficiency. For this aim, time dependent density functional theory is used to simulate the absorption spectra of alkyl thiol (R-SH), thiophenol (PhSH) and p-(trifluoromethyl) thiophenol (p-CF3PhSH), describe their excited state topologies, and explore their potential energy surfaces along the S-H dissociation. Excited state calculations have shown that the S-H photolysis is achieved through the triplet excited states following intersystem crossing from the originally populated singlet manifolds. More specifically, while in aromatic thiol derivatives dissociation is mainly triplet-state mediated, the first excited singlet state and first triplet state of alkyl thiol are both dissociative and hence potentially capable of generating the photoinduced radical species. We have also justified the experimental findings concerning the photoinitiator efficiency considering both their potential energy surface topologies and the absorption intensity, in the lowest energy region.
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Affiliation(s)
- Volkan Fındık
- Univesité de Lorraine, CNRS, LPCT, F54000 Nancy, France. .,Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Marmara University, 34722 Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Basak Koca Fındık
- Department of Chemistry, Bogazici University, 34342, Bebek, Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Viktorya Aviyente
- Department of Chemistry, Bogazici University, 34342, Bebek, Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Antonio Monari
- Univesité de Lorraine, CNRS, LPCT, F54000 Nancy, France. .,Université de Paris and CNRS, ITODYS, F-75006, Paris, France.
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11
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Marsili E, Prlj A, Curchod BFE. Caveat when using ADC(2) for studying the photochemistry of carbonyl-containing molecules. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2021; 23:12945-12949. [PMID: 34085679 PMCID: PMC8207513 DOI: 10.1039/d1cp02185k] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2021] [Accepted: 05/28/2021] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Several electronic-structure methods are available to study the photochemistry and photophysics of organic molecules. Among them, ADC(2) stands as a sweet spot between computational efficiency and accuracy. As a result, ADC(2) has recently seen its number of applications booming, in particular to unravel the deactivation pathways and photodynamics of organic molecules. Despite this growing success, we demonstrate here that care has to be taken when studying the nonradiative pathways of carbonyl-containing molecules, as ADC(2) appears to suffer from a systematic flaw.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Antonio Prlj
- Department of Chemistry, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, UK.
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12
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Chakraborty P, Liu Y, McClung S, Weinacht T, Matsika S. Time Resolved Photoelectron Spectroscopy as a Test of Electronic Structure and Nonadiabatic Dynamics. J Phys Chem Lett 2021; 12:5099-5104. [PMID: 34028278 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c00926] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
We compare different levels of theory for simulating excited state molecular dynamics and use time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy measurements to benchmark the theory. We perform trajectory surface hopping simulations for uracil excited to the first bright state (ππ*) using three different levels of theory (CASSCF, MRCIS, and XMS-CASPT2) in order to understand the role of dynamical correlation in determining the excited state dynamics, with a focus on the coupling between different electronic states and internal conversion back to the ground state. These dynamics calculations are used to simulate the time-resolved photoelectron spectra. The comparison of the calculated and measured spectra allows us to draw conclusions regarding the relative insights and quantitative accuracy of the calculations at the three different levels of theory, demonstrating that detailed quantitative comparisons of time-resolved photoelectron spectra can be used to benchmark methodology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pratip Chakraborty
- Department of Chemistry, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122, United States
| | - Yusong Liu
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794, United States
| | - Samuel McClung
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794, United States
| | - Thomas Weinacht
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794, United States
| | - Spiridoula Matsika
- Department of Chemistry, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122, United States
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13
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Green JA, Jouybari MY, Aranda D, Improta R, Santoro F. Nonadiabatic Absorption Spectra and Ultrafast Dynamics of DNA and RNA Photoexcited Nucleobases. Molecules 2021; 26:1743. [PMID: 33804640 PMCID: PMC8003674 DOI: 10.3390/molecules26061743] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2021] [Revised: 03/12/2021] [Accepted: 03/14/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
We have recently proposed a protocol for Quantum Dynamics (QD) calculations, which is based on a parameterisation of Linear Vibronic Coupling (LVC) Hamiltonians with Time Dependent (TD) Density Functional Theory (TD-DFT), and exploits the latest developments in multiconfigurational TD-Hartree methods for an effective wave packet propagation. In this contribution we explore the potentialities of this approach to compute nonadiabatic vibronic spectra and ultrafast dynamics, by applying it to the five nucleobases present in DNA and RNA. For all of them we computed the absorption spectra and the dynamics of ultrafast internal conversion (100 fs timescale), fully coupling the first 2-3 bright states and all the close by dark states, for a total of 6-9 states, and including all the normal coordinates. We adopted two different functionals, CAM-B3LYP and PBE0, and tested the effect of the basis set. Computed spectra are in good agreement with the available experimental data, remarkably improving over pure electronic computations, but also with respect to vibronic spectra obtained neglecting inter-state couplings. Our QD simulations indicate an effective population transfer from the lowest energy bright excited states to the close-lying dark excited states for uracil, thymine and adenine. Dynamics from higher-energy states show an ultrafast depopulation toward the more stable ones. The proposed protocol is sufficiently general and automatic to promise to become useful for widespread applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- James A. Green
- CNR—Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Biostrutture e Bioimmagini (IBB-CNR), Via Mezzocannone 16, I-80136 Napoli, Italy;
| | - Martha Yaghoubi Jouybari
- CNR—Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche, Istituto di Chimica dei Composti Organo Metallici (ICCOM-CNR), SS di Pisa, Area Della Ricerca, Via G. Moruzzi 1, I-56124 Pisa, Italy; (M.Y.J.); (D.A.)
| | - Daniel Aranda
- CNR—Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche, Istituto di Chimica dei Composti Organo Metallici (ICCOM-CNR), SS di Pisa, Area Della Ricerca, Via G. Moruzzi 1, I-56124 Pisa, Italy; (M.Y.J.); (D.A.)
| | - Roberto Improta
- CNR—Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Biostrutture e Bioimmagini (IBB-CNR), Via Mezzocannone 16, I-80136 Napoli, Italy;
| | - Fabrizio Santoro
- CNR—Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche, Istituto di Chimica dei Composti Organo Metallici (ICCOM-CNR), SS di Pisa, Area Della Ricerca, Via G. Moruzzi 1, I-56124 Pisa, Italy; (M.Y.J.); (D.A.)
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