Carbon monoxide (CO)-releasing molecules (CORMs), mostly metal carbonyl compounds, are extensively used as experimental tools to deliver CO, a biological ‘gasotransmitter’, in mammalian systems. CORMs are also explored as potential novel antimicrobial drugs, effectively and rapidly killing bacteria in vitro and in animal models, but are reportedly benign towards mammalian cells. Ru-carbonyl CORMs, exemplified by CORM-3 (Ru(CO)3Cl(glycinate)), exhibit the most potent antimicrobial effects against Escherichia coli. We demonstrate that CORM-3 releases little CO in buffers and cell culture media and that the active antimicrobial agent is Ru(II), which binds tightly to thiols. Thus, thiols and amino acids in complex growth media – such as histidine, methionine and oxidised glutathione, but most pertinently cysteine and reduced glutathione (GSH) – protect both bacterial and mammalian cells against CORM-3 by binding and sequestering Ru(II). No other amino acids exert significant protective effects. NMR reveals that CORM-3 binds cysteine and GSH in a 1:1 stoichiometry with dissociation constants, Kd, of about 5 μM, while histidine, GSSG and methionine are bound less tightly, with Kd values ranging between 800 and 9000 μM. There is a direct positive correlation between protection and amino acid affinity for CORM-3. Intracellular targets of CORM-3 in both bacterial and mammalian cells are therefore expected to include GSH, free Cys, His and Met residues and any molecules that contain these surface-exposed amino acids. These results necessitate a major reappraisal of the biological effects of CORM-3 and related CORMs.

A variant of cavity-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (CERS) is introduced, in which diode laser radiation at 635 nm is coupled into an external linear optical cavity composed of two highly reflective mirrors. Using optical feedback stabilisation, build-up of circulating laser power by 3 orders of magnitude occurs. Strong Raman signals are collected in forward scattering geometry. Gas phase CERS spectra of H(2), air, CH(4) and benzene are recorded to demonstrate the potential for analytical applications and fundamental molecular studies. Noise equivalent limits of detection in the ppm by volume range (1 bar sample) can be achieved with excellent linearity with a 10 mW excitation laser, with sensitivity increasing with laser power and integration time. The apparatus can be operated with battery powered components and can thus be very compact and portable. Possible applications include safety monitoring of hydrogen gas levels, isotope tracer studies (e.g., (14)N/(15)N ratios), observing isotopomers of hydrogen (e.g., radioactive tritium), and simultaneous multi-component gas analysis. CERS has the potential to become a standard method for sensitive gas phase Raman spectroscopy.

The near-infrared overtone spectra of the prototypical hydrogen-bond hydrogen fluoride dimer (HF)2 contain rich information on hydrogen bond dynamics. We report a study of the N=2 triad involving excitations with two quanta of HF stretching in (HF)2 around 1.3 microm (7500-7800 cm(-1)) by means of continuous-wave-diode laser cavity ring-down spectroscopy in a pulsed supersonic slit jet expansion. The analysis of the rotationally resolved overtone spectra allows the study of vibrational mode-selective kinetics, such as hydrogen bond predissociation with lifetimes tauPD and tunneling rearrangement (switching) processes with periods tausw obtained from the tunneling splitting DeltaT in highly excited vibrational states. The Ka=1<--0 transition of the Nj=22 band of (HF)2 has been reinvestigated by us in a supersonic jet expansion; the much improved data obtained here are in excellent agreement with several previous experimental results. Our analysis provides subband-level positions and properties 0(Ka=1(A+))=7711.37956(66) cm(-1), DeltaT=0.0936(10) cm(-1), and tauPD=1.3-1.9x10(-9) s, depending on the level symmetry A+ and B+. We have also analyzed spectra of the Nj=21 band, which we have observed for the first time in a supersonic jet with rotational resolution. For the Ka=0<--0 transition of this band, we find the band center at 0(A+)=7550.3555(26) cm(-1) and a tunneling splitting of DeltaT=0.0150(37) cm(-1). This level involves mostly excitation of the H-bonded HF stretching with two quanta. The mode-selective tunneling switching is in agreement with a simple picture of inhibited tunneling. These experimental values are close to those calculated on the "SO(-3)" potential energy hypersurface of Klopper, Quack, and Suhm. The N=2 triad also exhibits a strongly mode-selective predissociation dynamics, with a predissociation lifetime tauPD=4.99(84)x10(-11) s in the Nj=21 level, which is more than 20 times shorter than that for the Nj=22 level.

We report on improvements made on our previously introduced technique of cavity-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (CERS) with optical feedback cw-diode lasers in the gas phase, including a new mode-matching procedure which keeps the laser in resonance with the optical cavity without inducing long-term frequency shifts of the laser, and using a new CCD camera with improved noise performance. With 10 mW of 636.2 nm diode laser excitation and 30 s integration time, cavity enhancement achieves noise-equivalent detection limits below 1 mbar at 1 bar total pressure, depending on Raman cross sections. Detection limits can be easily improved using higher power diodes. We further demonstrate a relevant analytical application of CERS, the multicomponent analysis of natural gas samples. Several spectroscopic features have been identified and characterized. CERS with low power diode lasers is suitable for online monitoring of natural gas mixtures with sensitivity and spectroscopic selectivity, including monitoring H2, H2S, N2, CO2, and alkanes.

Molecular association of chloroform with ammonia is studied by high-level quantum chemical calculations including correlated MP2 and CCSD(T) calculations with basis sets up to6-311++G(d,p) and counterpoise corrected energies, geometries, and frequencies. The calculations predict an eclipsed hydrogen-bonded complex of C(3v) symmetry (DeltaE(0)=-15.07 kJ mol(-1)) with 225.4 pm intermolecular CHcdots, three dots, centeredN distance. Intermolecular interactions are analysed by Kitaura-Morokuma [Int. J. Quantum Chem. 10, 325 (1976)] interaction energy decomposition. Compared to the monomer, the C-H bond is elongated, and the CH-stretching fundamental shifts to lower wave numbers and has a marked approximately 340-fold increase of its intensity. Based on these predictions, the complex is observed by infrared spectroscopy in the gas phase at room temperature. A subtraction procedure isolates its spectrum, and a dilution series confirms the presence of a 1:1 complex. The CHCl(3)cdots, three dots, centeredNH(3) complex has an experimental -17.5 cm(-1) shift of its CH-stretching vibration, and CDCl(3)cdots, three dots, centeredNH(3) a -12.5 cm(-1) shift of the CD-stretching vibration. After a deperturbation of the CH-stretching/bending mode Fermi resonance system, this indicates a "redshifting" or more appropriately, a "C-H elongating" hydrogen bond in agreement with the ab initio calculations. An estimate of the complex concentration gives the equilibrium constant K(p)=0.024 (p(theta)=10(5) Pa) at 295 K for the dimerization, providing one of the few examples where a hydrogen-bonded gas phase complex at room temperature could be quantitatively studied by infrared spectroscopy.

High level ab initio quantum chemical calculations have been performed on the association of chloroform with ammonia in the gas phase (counterpoise corrected MP2 and coupled-cluster CCSD(T) calculations with 6-311++G(d,p) basis functions). Minimum energy equilibrium structures have been found for CHCl(3)-NH(3) dimer, CHCl(3)-(NH(3))(2) trimer and CHCl(3)-(NH(3))(3) tetramer. Association is characterised by a CHN hydrogen bond between a chloroform and an ammonia molecule, with further ammonia units attached by hydrogen bonds to ammonia and by an electrostatic NHCl interaction to chloroform. Cooperative effects provide additional stabilisation. The complexes exhibit characteristic shifts of vibrational bands and change of IR intensity; in particular there is a pronounced progressive shift of the CH-stretching vibration towards lower wavenumber with each unit of ammonia attached in the complex. The shift is accompanied by an up to 600 fold increase in IR intensity. The experimental FTIR jet spectra have provided firm evidence of CHCl(3)-NH(3) association, with the clearest effects seen in the region of the CH-stretching vibration. First tentative assignments have been made based on the dependence of relative intensities of cluster features on the concentration of monomers, and assignments have been corroborated by the quantum chemical calculations. The present combined ab initio and FTIR spectroscopy study reveals the structure and energetics of cluster formation and intermolecular bonding in CHCl(3)-NH(3) association.

A molecular association between chloroform and sulfur dioxide in the gas phase at room temperature was studied by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Since the intensity of the CH-stretching fundamental vibration of monomer chloroform is very weak but much stronger upon complexation, a simple subtraction procedure isolated the CH-stretching vibration spectrum of the complex. The presence of a 1:1 complex was confirmed by two dilution series, where the monomer concentrations were varied. The molecular association manifested itself as a shift of the peak absorbance of the CH-stretching vibration of CHCl3-SO2 by +7 cm(-1) and of the CD-stretching vibration of CDCl3-SO2 by +5 cm(-1) to higher wave numbers compared to monomer chloroform, accompanied by a considerable broadening of the band contour. In agreement with previous ab initio calculations, this indicates a "blueshifting" or more appropriately, a "C-H contracting" hydrogen bond between chloroform and sulfur dioxide. An estimate of the complex concentration was made based on ab initio calculations for the integrated band strength and the measured spectrum. With this estimate, the equilibrium constant Kp (295 K)=0.014 (po=10(5) Pa) for the dimerization was calculated, providing one of the very few cases where the formation of a hydrogen-bonded gas phase complex at room temperature could be quantitatively studied by infrared spectroscopy.

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