Stability of the ammonium and methylammonium radicals from neutralized ion‐beam spectroscopy

Photodetachment and Tunneling Dissociation of Cryogenic Double-Rydberg Anions NH4. J Phys Chem Lett 2024;15:5612-5617. [PMID: 38758204 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.4c01168] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0]

The Rydberg radical NH4 and the double Rydberg anion (DRA) NH4- have long aroused researchers' interests due to their potential for exploring the reaction dynamics of the H + NH3 → H2 + NH2 reaction, a prototypical penta-atomic system. In this study, we present high-resolution photodetachment spectroscopy of DRA NH4- and ion-molecule complex H-(NH3). We observed multiple new photodetachment channels of DRA NH4-. The energy level of the excited state (3p 2T2) of the Rydberg radical NH4 was determined to be 15052(94) cm-1, in excellent agreement with the principal Schüler band (15061.61 cm-1). Additionally, we observed the tunneling dissociation of NH4- in a cryogenic ion trap with its dissociation lifetime determined to be 19(2) ms.

Long-Range N-N Bonding by Rydberg Electrons

By using high-level ab initio methods, we examine the nature of bonding between Rydberg electrons hosted by two four-coordinate nitrogen centers embedded in a hydrocarbon scaffold. The electronic structure of these species resembles that of diradicals, yet the diffuse nature of the orbitals hosting the unpaired electrons results in unusual features. The unpaired Rydberg electrons exhibit long-range bonding interactions, leading to stabilization of the singlet state (relative to the triplet) and a reduced number of effectively unpaired electrons. However, thermochemical gains due to through-space bonding are offset by strong Coulomb repulsion between positively charged nitrogen cores. The kinetic stability of these Rydberg diradicals may be controlled by a judicious choice of the molecular scaffold, suggesting possible strategies for their experimental characterization.

Hypervalent radical formation probed by electron transfer dissociation of zwitterionic tryptophan and tryptophan-containing dipeptides complexed with Ca2+ and 18-crown-6 in the gas phase

The relationship between peptide structure and electron transfer dissociation (ETD) is important for structural analysis by mass spectrometry. In the present study, the formation, structure and reactivity of the reaction intermediate in the ETD process were examined using a quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometer equipped with an electrospray ionization source. ETD product ions of zwitterionic tryptophan (Trp) and Trp-containing dipeptides (Trp-Gly and Gly-Trp) were detected without reionization using non-covalent analyte complexes with Ca(2+) and 18-crown-6 (18C6). In the collision-induced dissociation, NH3 loss was the main dissociation pathway, and loss related to the dissociation of the carboxyl group was not observed. This indicated that Trp and its dipeptides on Ca(2+) (18C6) adopted a zwitterionic structure with an NH3 (+) group and bonded to Ca(2+) (18C6) through the COO(-) group. Hydrogen atom loss observed in the ETD spectra indicated that intermolecular electron transfer from a molecular anion to the NH3 (+) group formed a hypervalent ammonium radical, R-NH3 , as a reaction intermediate, which was unstable and dissociated rapidly through N-H bond cleavage. In addition, N-Cα bond cleavage forming the z1 ion was observed in the ETD spectra of Trp-GlyCa(2+) (18C6) and Gly-TrpCa(2+) (18C6). This dissociation was induced by transfer of a hydrogen atom in the cluster formed via an N-H bond cleavage of the hypervalent ammonium radical and was in competition with the hydrogen atom loss. The results showed that a hypervalent radical intermediate, forming a delocalized hydrogen atom, contributes to the backbone cleavages of peptides in ETD.

A nine-dimensional global potential energy surface for NH4(X2A1) and kinetics studies on the H + NH3 ↔ H2 + NH2 reaction

A nine-dimensional global potential energy surface (PES) for the NH₄ system is developed from ∼10⁵ high-level ab initio points and the hydrogen abstraction kinetics on the PES agree with experiment.

Molecular anions

The experimental and theoretical study of molecular anions has undergone explosive growth over the past 40 years. Advances in techniques used to generate anions in appreciable numbers as well as new ion-storage, ion-optics, and laser spectroscopic tools have been key on the experimental front. Theoretical developments on the electronic structure and molecular dynamics fronts now allow one to achieve higher accuracy and to study electronically metastable states, thus bringing theory in close collaboration with experiment in this field. In this article, many of the experimental and theoretical challenges specific to studying molecular anions are discussed. Results from many research groups on several classes of molecular anions are overviewed, and both literature citations and active (in online html and pdf versions) links to numerous contributing scientists' Web sites are provided. Specific focus is made on the following families of anions: dipole-bound, zwitterion-bound, double-Rydberg, multiply charged, metastable, cluster-based, and biological anions. In discussing each kind of anion, emphasis is placed on the structural, energetic, spectroscopic, and chemical-reactivity characteristics that make these anions novel, interesting, and important.

Theoretical study of the hydrogen atom transfer in the heterodimer indole-ammonia and comparison with experimental results

Ab initio calculations on the heterodimer C8H6NH...NH3 are carried out for its ground, the excited pisigma*, and the ground cationic electronic states, enabling the description of hydrogen or proton transfer, respectively. Two-dimensional quantum-dynamical computations on the pisigma* potential surface help one to understand the mechanism and the time scale of the hydrogen transfer. Subsequent decay processes are discussed depending on the vibrational excitation of the ammonium constituent. Finally, the theoretical results obtained are used for the interpretation of the time-dependent signals observed in femtosecond pump-probe experiments.

Two new double Rydberg anions plus access to excited states of neutral Rydberg radicals via anion photoelectron spectroscopy

We have observed and characterized two new double Rydberg anions N6H19- and N7H22- through their anion photoelectron spectra. The vertical detachment energies of these anions were found to be 0.443 and 0.438 eV, respectively. In addition, for three of the seven double Rydberg anions now known, we measured photodetachment transitions not only to the ground electronic states of their corresponding neutral Rydberg radicals but also to their first electronically excited states. In each spectrum, the energy spacing between the resulting peaks provided the ground-to-first electronically excited-state transition energy for the double Rydberg anion's corresponding neutral Rydberg radical. For the radicals, N4H13, N5H16, and N6H19, the spacings were found to be 0.83, 0.70, and 0.67 eV, respectively. These values are in excellent agreement with ground-to-first excited-state transition energies measured in absorption for the same neutral Rydberg radicals by Fuke and co-workers [Eur. Phys. J. D 9, 309 (1999); J. Phys. Chem. A 106, 5242 (2002).] The duplication of this neutral Rydberg property by photodetachment of double Rydberg anions further confirms that double Rydberg anions are indeed the negative ions of their corresponding neutral Rydberg molecules and cluster-like systems.

Toward a general mechanism of electron capture dissociation

The effects of positive charge on the properties of ammonium and amide radicals were investigated by ab initio and density functional theory calculations with the goal of elucidating the energetics of electron capture dissociation (ECD) of multiply charged peptide ions. The electronic properties of the amide group in N-methylacetamide (NMA) are greatly affected by the presence of a remote charge in the form of a point charge, methylammonium, or guanidinium cations. The common effect of the remote charge is an increase of the electron affinity of the amide group, resulting in exothermic electron capture. The N-Calpha bond dissociation and transition state energies in charge-stabilized NMA anions are 20-50 kJ mol(-1) greater than in the hydrogen atom adduct. The zwitterions formed by electron capture have proton affinities that were calculated as 1030-1350 kJ mol(-1), and are sufficiently basic for the amide carbonyl to exothermically abstract a proton from the ammonium, guanidinium and imidazolium groups in protonated lysine, arginine, and histidine residues, respectively. A new mechanism is proposed for ECD of multiply charged peptide and protein cations in which the electron enters a charge-stabilized electronic state delocalized over the amide group, which is a superbase that abstracts a proton from a sterically proximate amino acid residue to form a labile aminoketyl radical that dissociates by N-Calpha bond cleavage. This mechanism explains the low selectivity of N-Calpha bond dissociations induced by electron capture, and is applicable to dissociations of peptide ions in which the charge carriers are metal ions or quaternary ammonium groups. The new amide superbase and the previously proposed mechanisms of ECD can be uniformly viewed as being triggered by intramolecular proton transfer in charge-reduced amide cation-radicals. In contrast, remote charge affects N-H bond dissociation in weakly bound ground electronic states of hypervalent ammonium radicals, as represented by methylammonium, CH3NH3*, but has a negligible effect on the N-H bond dissociation in the strongly bound excited electronic states. This refutes previous speculations that loss of "hot hydrogen" can occur from an excited state of an ammonium radical.

Ground and excited states of NH4: Electron propagator and quantum defect analysis

Vertical excitation energies of the Rydberg radical NH4 are inferred from ab initio electron propagator calculations on the electron affinities of NH4+. The adiabatic ionization energy of NH4 is evaluated with coupled-cluster calculations. These predictions provide optimal parameters for the molecular-adapted quantum defect orbital method, which is used to determine Einstein emission coefficients and radiative lifetimes. Comparisons with spectroscopic data and previous calculations are discussed.

Models of fragmentations induced by electron attachment to protonated peptides

Invoking a number of theoretical levels ranging from HF/STO-3G to CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVQZ, we have made a detailed survey of six potential energy surfaces (NH4+, NH4*, [CH3CONHCH3]H+, [CH3CONHCH3]H*, [HCONHCH2CONH2]H+, [HCONHCH2CONH2]H*). In conjunction with this, ab inito direct dynamics calculations have been conducted, tracing out several hundred reaction trajectories to reveal details of the electron-capture dissociation mechanism. The model calculations suggest the possibility of a bimodal pattern where some of the radicals, formed upon recombination, dissociate almost directly within one picosecond, the remaining radicals being subject to complete energy redistribution with a subsequent dissociation occurring at the microsecond timescale. Both processes give rise to c and z backbone fragments, resulting from cleavage of N-Calpha bonds of the peptide chain.

Stereochemical interactions in ammonium dications, hypervalent diammonium cation-radicals and ammonium radicals. A B3-MP2 computational study

Hypervalent ammonium radicals and cation-radicals derived from cis and trans-cyclopentane-1,2-diamine have been studied computationally with the goal of elucidating intramolecular interactions between the ammonium and amine functional groups in a conformationally rigid model system. Hypervalent cis and trans-cyclopentane-1-ammonium-2-amine radicals are only marginally stable against dissociation by loss of an ammonium hydrogen atom and ammonia. The radicals are predicted to exhibit very similar dissociations originating from the ground and excited electronic states. The dissociation and transition state energies in bifunctional hypervalent ammonium radicals are analogous to those reported previously for monofunctional ammonium radicals. Stereochemical effects are predicted to occur in the formation and dissociations of hypervalent cis and trans-cyclopentane-1,2-diammonium cation-radicals. The cis-isomer is calculated to undergo very facile elimination of dihydrogen resulting from a dipolar H(+)....H(-) interaction between the ammonium groups. The trans-isomer is predicted to spontaneously dissociate to a complex of cyclopentene cation-radical and two ammonia molecules.