Tautomerism of the nucleobase uracil is characterized in the gas phase through IR photodissociation spectroscopy of singly hydrated protonated uracil created with tandem mass spectrometric methods in a commercially available Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer. Protonated uracil ions generated by electrospray ionization are re-solvated in a low-pressure collision cell filled with a mixture of water vapor seeded in argon. Their structure is investigated by IR photodissociation spectroscopy in the NH and OH stretching region (2500-3800 cm(-1)) with a tabletop IR laser source and in the 1000-2000 cm(-1) range with a free-electron laser. In both regions the IR photodissociation spectrum exhibits well-resolved spectral signatures that point to the presence of two different types of structure for monohydrated protonated uracil, which result from the two lowest-energy tautomers of uracil. Ab initio calculations confirm that no water-catalyzed tautomerization occurs during the re-solvation process, indicating that the two protonated forms of uracil directly originate from the electrospray process.

2-Aminopurine (2 AP) is a fluorescent isomer of adenine and has a fluorescence lifetime of ~11 ns in water. It is widely used in biochemical settings as a site-specific fluorescent probe of DNA and RNA structure and base-flipping and -folding. These assays assume that 2 AP is intrinsically strongly fluorescent. Here, we show this not to be the case, observing that gas-phase, jet-cooled 2-aminopurine and 9-methyl-2-aminopurine have very short fluorescence lifetimes (156 ps and 210 ps, respectively); they are, to all intents and purposes, non-fluorescent. We find that the lifetime of 2-aminopurine increases dramatically when it is part of a hydrate cluster, 2 AP · (H2O)n, where n = 1-3. Not only does it depend on the presence of water molecules, it also depends on the specific hydrogen-bonding site to which they attach and on the number of H2O molecules at that site. We selectively microhydrate 2-aminopurine at its sugar-edge, cis-amino or trans-amino sites and see that its fluorescence lifetime increases by 4, 50 and 95 times (to 14.5 ns), respectively.

We have investigated the UV vibronic spectra and excited-state nonradiative processes of the 7H- and 9H-tautomers of jet-cooled 2-aminopurine (2AP) and of the 9H-2AP-d(4) and -d(5) isotopomers, using two-color resonant two-photon ionization spectroscopy at 0.3 and 0.045  cm(-1) resolution. The S(1) ← S(0) transition of 7H-2AP was observed for the first time. It lies ∼1600  cm(-1) below that of 9H-2AP, is ∼1000 times weaker and exhibits only in-plane vibronic excitations. In contrast, the S(1) ← S(0) spectra of 9H-2AP, 9H-2AP-d(4), and 9H-2AP-d(5) show numerous low-frequency bands that can be systematically assigned to overtone and combinations of the out-of-plane vibrations ν(1)', ν(2)', and ν(3)'. The intensity of these out-of-plane bands reflects an out-of-plane deformation in the (1)ππ∗(L(a)) state. Approximate second-order coupled-cluster theory also predicts that 2-aminopurine undergoes a "butterfly" deformation in its lowest (1)ππ∗ state. The rotational contours of the 9H-2AP, 9H-2AP-d(4), and 9H-2AP-d(5) 0(0)(0) bands and of eight vibronic bands of 9H-2AP up to 0(0)(0) + 600 cm(-1) exhibit 75%-80% in-plane (a∕b) polarization, which is characteristic for a (1)ππ∗ excitation. A 20%-25% c-axis (perpendicular) transition dipole moment component may indicate coupling of the (1)ππ∗ bright state to the close-lying (1)nπ∗ dark state. However, no (1)nπ∗ vibronic bands were detected below or up to 500  cm(-1) above the (1)ππ∗ 0(0)(0) band. Following (1)ππ∗ excitation, 9H-2AP undergoes a rapid nonradiative transition to a lower-lying long-lived state with a lifetime ≥5 μs. The ionization potential of 9H-2AP was measured via the (1)ππ∗ state (IP = 8.020 eV) and the long-lived state (IP > 9.10 eV). The difference shows that the long-lived state lies ≥1.08 eV below the (1)ππ∗ state. Time-dependent B3LYP calculations predict the (3)ππ∗ (T(1)) state 1.12 eV below the (1)ππ∗ state, but place the (1)nπ∗ (S(1)) state close to the (1)ππ∗ state, implying that the long-lived state is the lowest triplet (T(1)) and not the (1)nπ∗ state.

The interest in the radical cations of amino acids is twofold. On the one hand, these species are relevant in enzymatic catalysis and in oxidative damage of proteins. On the other hand, as constituents of peptides and proteins, they aid the mass spectrometric characterization of these biomolecules, yielding diagnostic fragmentation patterns and providing complementary information with respect to the one obtained from even electron ions. The cysteine radical cation has been obtained by S-NO bond cleavage of protonated S-nitrosocysteine and thoroughly characterized by IRMPD spectroscopy, both in the 1000-2000 cm(-1) range (the highly structurally diagnostic, so-called 'fingerprint' range) and in the 2900-3700 cm(-1) spectral range, encompassing O-H and N-H stretching vibrations. In this way the distonic structure in which the charge is on the NH(3) group and the spin is on the sulfur atom is unambiguously demonstrated. This tautomer is a local minimum on the potential energy surface, at 29.7 kJ mol(-1) with respect to the most stable tautomer, a captodative structure allowing extensive delocalization of charge and spin.

The structure and infrared (IR) spectrum of the Ag(+)-phenol cationic complex are characterized in the gas phase by photodissociation spectroscopy and quantum chemical calculations in order to determine the preferred metal ion binding site. The IR multiple photon dissociation (IRMPD) spectrum has been obtained in the 1100-1700 cm(-1) fingerprint range by coupling the IR free electron laser at the Centre Laser Infrarouge d'Orsay (CLIO) with a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometer equipped with an electrospray ionization source. The spectroscopic efforts are complemented by quantum chemical calculations at the MP2 and B3LYP levels using the aug-cc-pVTZ basis set. Analysis of the IRMPD spectrum is consistent with a π complex, in which the Ag(+) ion binds to the aromatic ring in an η(1) (B3LYP) or η(2) (MP2) fashion to carbon atoms in the para position of the OH group. Ag(+) bonding to the hydroxyl group in the form of a σ complex is calculated to be less favorable. Comparison of the structural and vibrational properties of phenol, Ag(+)-phenol, and phenol(+) suggests partial charge transfer upon formation of the π complex.

We measured accurate intermolecular dissociation energies D of the supersonic jet-cooled complexes of 1-naphthol (1NpOH) with the noble gases Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe and with N, using the stimulated-emission pumping resonant two-photon ionization method. The ground-state values D(S) for the 1NpOH⋅S complexes with S= Ar, Kr, Xe, and N were bracketed to be within ±3.5%; they are 5.67 ± 0.05 kJ/mol for S = Ar, 7.34 ± 0.07 kJ/mol for S = Kr, 10.8 ± 0.28 kJ/mol for S = Xe, 6.67 ± 0.08 kJ/mol for isomer 1 of the 1NpOH⋅N complex, and 6.62 ± 0.22 kJ/mol for the corresponding isomer 2. For S = Ne, the upper limit is D < 3.36 kJ/mol. The dissociation energies increase by 1%-5% upon S → S excitation of the complexes. Three dispersion-corrected density functional theory (DFT-D) methods (B97-D3, B3LYP-D3, and ωB97X-D) predict that the most stable form of these complexes involves dispersive binding to the naphthalene "face." A more weakly bound edge isomer is predicted in which the S moiety is H-bonded to the OH group of 1NpOH; however, no edge isomers were observed experimentally. The B97-D3 calculated dissociation energies D(S) of the face complexes with Ar, Kr, and N agree with the experimental values within <5%, but the D(S) for Xe is 12% too low. The B3LYP-D3 and ωB97X-D calculated D(S) values exhibit larger deviations to both larger and smaller dissociation energies. For comparison to 1-naphthol, we calculated the D(S) of the carbazole complexes with S = Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, and N using the same DFT-D methods. The respective experimental values have been previously determined to be within <2%. Again, the B97-D3 results are in the best overall agreement with experiment.

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Model ferric heme nitrosyl complexes, [Fe(TPP)(NO)](+) and [Fe(TPFPP)(NO)](+), where TPP is the dianion of 5,10,15,20-tetrakis-phenyl-porphyrin and TPFPP is the dianion of 5,10,15,20-tetrakis-pentafluorophenyl-porphyrin, have been obtained as isolated species by the gas phase reaction of NO with [Fe(III)(TPP)](+) and [Fe(III) (TPFPP)](+) ions delivered in the gas phase by electrospray ionization, respectively. The so-formed nitrosyl complexes have been characterized by vibrational spectroscopy also exploiting (15)N-isotope substitution in the NO ligand. The characteristic NO stretching frequency is observed at 1825 and 1859 cm(-1) for [Fe(III)(TPP)(NO)](+) and [Fe(III)(TPFPP)(NO)](+) ions, respectively, providing reference values for genuine five-coordinate Fe(III)(NO) porphyrin complexes differing only for the presence of either phenyl or pentafluorophenyl substituents on the meso positions of the porphyrin ligand. The vibrational assignment is aided by hybrid density functional theory (DFT) calculations of geometry and electronic structure and frequency analysis which clearly support a singlet spin electronic state for both [Fe(TPP)(NO)](+) and [Fe(TPFPP)(NO)](+) complexes. Both TD-DFT and CASSCF calculations suggest that the singlet ground state is best described as Fe(II)(NO(+)) and that the open-shell AFC bonding scheme contribute for a high-energy excited state. The kinetics of the NO addition reaction in the gas phase are faster for [Fe(III)(TPFPP)](+) ions by a relatively small factor, though highly reliable because of a direct comparative evaluation. The study was aimed at gaining vibrational and reactivity data on five-coordinate Fe(III)(NO) porphyrin complexes, typically transient species in solution, ultimately to provide insights into the nature of the Fe(NO) interaction in heme proteins.