Electronic properties of DNA-related molecules containing a bromine atom

Incorporation of a bromine atom into DNA-related molecules changes their electronic properties

“…They demonstrated that irradiation by soft X-rays and by low energy (near 0 eV) electrons results in molecular dissociation into a halogen anion and a uracilyl radical, particularly in BrU and IU. Recently, we used specific heat measurements to determine that the microscopic state number of BrU crystals was about 1.5 times larger than that for T (a nonbrominated nucleobase) below 20 K, although the core level ionisation/ excitation of the elements constituting the molecules was barely affected by bromination, 11 suggesting that the valence electronic states contributed to the larger microscopic state number of BrU.…”