An efficient red phosphor, BaMoO 4 :Pr 3+ , has been fabricated by a convenient solid-state method. A strong red emission centered at 643 nm corresponding to the 3 P 0 / 3 F 2 transition of Pr 3+ is observed under 430-500 nm excitation. In addition, improvement of the intensity of the red emission has been achieved by adding an alkali chloride to the BaMoO 4 :Pr 3+ phosphor samples, this being explained by a charge compensation mechanism. The influence of the sintering temperature on the luminescence properties of the phosphors is also discussed.

The conformers of gaseous bradykinin, BK, (Arg(1)-Pro(2)-Pro(3)-Gly(4)-Phe(5)-Ser(6)-Pro(7)-Phe(8)-Arg(9)) and its protonated forms, [BK + H](+), [BK + 2H](2+), and [BK + 3H](3+), were examined theoretically using a combination of the Merck molecular force field, Hartree-Fock, and density functional theory. Neutral BK, [BK + H](+), and [BK + 2H](2+) exist in zwitterionic forms that are stabilized by internal solvation and have compact structures; [BK + 3H](3+) differs by the absence of a salt bridge and adopts an elongated form. The common structural feature in all four BK species is a beta-turn in the Ser(6)-Pro(7)-Phe(8)-Arg(9) sequence. The gas-phase basicity of [BK + H](+) estimated from the calculated protonation energy is in accord with published experimental basicity; population-weighted collision cross-sections of the three ionic forms are in agreement with experimental cross-sections in the literature.

An ion mobility spectrometer that has its mobility cell as a 20-segment quadrupole and functionally the q2 of a triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer has been assembled and tested. The combination of high cell pressure (maximum of 4 Torr of helium) and low axial field (20-160 V per 20.2 cm) results in negligible internal excitation of the ions despite applications of rf and axial fields. The presence of collisional focusing ensures efficient ion transmission and good sensitivity. Collision cross sections of atomic, cluster, peptide, and protein ions were measured and found comparable to literature and calculated cross sections.

Structural information of gaseous ions can be obtained by comparing their collision cross sections as determined by ion-mobility experiments with those by theoretical modeling. Three theoretical models, the projection approximation (PA), the exact hard-sphere scattering (EHSS), and the trajectory (TJ) models, have been employed to determine the theoretical cross sections of candidate geometries. The accuracy of these models is largely dependent on the empirical parameters used for ion-buffer gas interactions. Optimal empirical parameters for each model have been determined by comparing the experimental cross sections of 20 calibrant ions with their theoretical cross sections obtained by using geometries sampled by density-functional-theory-based molecular dynamics simulations. The maximum absolute deviations of the cross sections of 15.5% (PA), 20.7% (EHSS), and 11.7% (TJ) obtained from the original parameters are reduced to 5.6% (PA), 4.6% (EHSS), and 3.4% (TJ) obtained from the new optimized parameters. The root-mean-square deviations of the predicted cross sections using the new parameters from the experimental values are also drastically reduced to 2.1% (PA), 1.9% (EHSS), and 1.6% (TJ). The new parameters are verified on protonated triglycine, protonated trialanine, and doubly protonated bradykinin.