1. |
- Eckert, Sebastian, et al.
(author)
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Electronic Structure Changes of an Aromatic Amine Photoacid along the Forster Cycle
- 2022
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In: Angewandte Chemie International Edition. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 1433-7851 .- 1521-3773. ; 61:27
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Photoacids show a strong increase in acidity in the first electronic excited state, enabling real-time studies of proton transfer in acid-base reactions, proton transport in energy storage devices and biomolecular sensor protein systems. Several explanations have been proposed for what determines photoacidity, ranging from variations in solvation free energy to changes in electronic structure occurring along the four stages of the Forster cycle. Here we use picosecond nitrogen K-edge spectroscopy to monitor the electronic structure changes of the proton donating group in a protonated aromatic amine photoacid in solution upon photoexcitation and subsequent proton transfer dynamics. Probing core-to-valence transitions locally at the amine functional group and with orbital specificity, we clearly reveal pronounced electronic structure, dipole moment and energetic changes on the conjugate photobase side. This result paves the way for a detailed electronic structural characterization of the photoacidity phenomenon.
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2. |
- Eckert, Sebastian, et al.
(author)
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From the Free Ligand to the Transition Metal Complex : FeEDTA- Formation Seen at Ligand K-Edges
- 2022
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In: Inorganic Chemistry. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0020-1669 .- 1520-510X. ; 61:27, s. 10321-10328
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Chelating agents are an integral part of transition metal complex chemistry with broad biological and industrial relevance. The hexadentate chelating agent ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) has the capability to bind to metal ions at its two nitrogen and four of its carboxylate oxygen sites. We use resonant inelastic X-ray scattering at the 1s absorption edge of the aforementioned elements in EDTA and the iron(III)-EDTA complex to investigate the impact of the metal-ligand bond formation on the electronic structure of EDTA. Frontier orbital distortions, occupation changes, and energy shifts through metal- ligand bond formation are probed through distinct spectroscopic signatures.
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3. |
- Eckert, Sebastian, et al.
(author)
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T-1 Population as the Driver of Excited-State Proton-Transfer in 2-Thiopyridone
- 2019
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In: Chemistry - A European Journal. - : Wiley. - 0947-6539 .- 1521-3765. ; 25:7, s. 1733-1739
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Excited-state proton transfer (ESPT) is a fundamental process in biomolecular photochemistry, but its underlying mediators often evade direct observation. We identify a distinct pathway for ESPT in aqueous 2-thiopyridone, by employing transient N1s X-ray absorption spectroscopy and multi-configurational spectrum simulations. Photoexcitations to the singlet S-2 and S-4 states both relax promptly through intersystem crossing to the triplet T-1 state. The T-1 state, through its rapid population and near nanosecond lifetime, mediates nitrogen site deprotonation by ESPT in a secondary intersystem crossing to the S-0 potential energy surface. This conclusively establishes a dominant ESPT pathway for the system in aqueous solution, which is also compatible with previous measurements in acetonitrile. Thereby, the hitherto open questions of the pathway for ESPT in the compound, including its possible dependence on excitation wavelength and choice of solvent, are resolved.
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4. |
- Giangrisostomi, Erika, et al.
(author)
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Low Dose Photoelectron Spectroscopy at BESSY II : Electronic structure of matter in its native state
- 2018
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In: Journal of Electron Spectroscopy and Related Phenomena. - : Elsevier. - 0368-2048 .- 1873-2526. ; 224:SI, s. 68-78
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The implementation of a high-transmission, angular-resolved time-of-Right electron spectrometer with a 1.25 MHz pulse selector at the PM4 soft X-ray dipole beamline of the synchrotron BESSY II creates unique capabilities to inquire electronic structure via photoelectron spectroscopy with a minimum of radiation dose. Solid-state samples can be prepared and characterized with standard UHV techniques and rapidly transferred from various preparation chambers to a 4-axis temperature-controlled measurement stage. A synchronized MHz laser system enables excited-state characterization and dynamical studies starting from the picosecond timescale. This article introduces the principal characteristics of the PM4 beamline and LowDosePES end-station. Recent results from graphene, an organic hole transport material for solar cells and the transition metal dichalcogenide MoS2 are presented to demonstrate the instrument performances. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
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5. |
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6. |
- Kubin, Markus, et al.
(author)
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Probing the oxidation state of transition metal complexes : a case study on how charge and spin densities determine Mn L-edge X-ray absorption energies
- 2018
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In: Chem. Sci.. - : The Royal Society of Chemistry. ; 9:33, s. 6813-6829
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Transition metals in inorganic systems and metalloproteins can occur in different oxidation states, which makes them ideal redox-active catalysts. To gain a mechanistic understanding of the catalytic reactions, knowledge of the oxidation state of the active metals, ideally in operando, is therefore critical. L-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) is a powerful technique that is frequently used to infer the oxidation state via a distinct blue shift of L-edge absorption energies with increasing oxidation state. A unified description accounting for quantum-chemical notions whereupon oxidation does not occur locally on the metal but on the whole molecule and the basic understanding that L-edge XAS probes the electronic structure locally at the metal has been missing to date. Here we quantify how charge and spin densities change at the metal and throughout the molecule for both redox and core-excitation processes. We explain the origin of the L-edge XAS shift between the high-spin complexes MnII(acac)2 and MnIII(acac)3 as representative model systems and use ab initio theory to uncouple effects of oxidation-state changes from geometric effects. The shift reflects an increased electron affinity of MnIII in the core-excited states compared to the ground state due to a contraction of the Mn 3d shell upon core-excitation with accompanied changes in the classical Coulomb interactions. This new picture quantifies how the metal-centered core hole probes changes in formal oxidation state and encloses and substantiates earlier explanations. The approach is broadly applicable to mechanistic studies of redox-catalytic reactions in molecular systems where charge and spin localization/delocalization determine reaction pathways.
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7. |
- Kubin, Markus, et al.
(author)
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Soft x-ray absorption spectroscopy of metalloproteins and high-valent metal-complexes at room temperature using free-electron lasers
- 2017
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In: Structural Dynamics. - : AMER INST PHYSICS. - 2329-7778. ; 4:5
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- X-ray absorption spectroscopy at the L-edge of 3d transition metals provides unique information on the local metal charge and spin states by directly probing 3d-derived molecular orbitals through 2p-3d transitions. However, this soft x-ray technique has been rarely used at synchrotron facilities for mechanistic studies of metalloenzymes due to the difficulties of x-ray-induced sample damage and strong background signals from light elements that can dominate the low metal signal. Here, we combine femtosecond soft x-ray pulses from a free-electron laser with a novel x-ray fluorescence-yield spectrometer to overcome these difficulties. We present L-edge absorption spectra of inorganic high-valent Mn complexes (Mn similar to 6-15 mmol/l) with no visible effects of radiation damage. We also present the first L-edge absorption spectra of the oxygen evolving complex (Mn4CaO5) in Photosystem II (Mn < 1 mmol/l) at room temperature, measured under similar conditions. Our approach opens new ways to study metalloenzymes under functional conditions. (C) 2017 Author(s).
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8. |
- Kubin, Markus, et al.
(author)
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X-ray-induced sample damage at the Mn L-edge : a case study for soft X-ray spectroscopy of transition metal complexes in solution
- 2018
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In: Physical Chemistry, Chemical Physics - PCCP. - : RSC Publishing. - 1463-9076 .- 1463-9084. ; 20:24, s. 16817-16827
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- X-ray induced sample damage can impede electronic and structural investigations of radiation-sensitive samples studied with X-rays. Here we quantify dose-dependent sample damage to the prototypical Mn-III(acac)(3) complex in solution and at room temperature for the soft X-ray range, using X-ray absorption spectroscopy at the Mn L-edge. We observe the appearance of a reduced Mn-II species as the X-ray dose is increased. We find a half-damage dose of 1.6 MGy and quantify a spectroscopically tolerable dose on the order of 0.3 MGy (1 Gy = 1 J kg(-1)), where 90% of Mn-III(acac)(3) are intact. Our dose-limit is around one order of magnitude lower than the Henderson limit (half-damage dose of 20 MGy) which is commonly employed for protein crystallography with hard X-rays. It is comparable, however, to the dose-limits obtained for collecting un-damaged Mn K-edge spectra of the photosystem II protein, using hard X-rays. The dose-dependent reduction of Mn-III observed here for solution samples occurs at a dose limit that is two to four orders of magnitude smaller than the dose limits previously reported for soft X-ray spectroscopy of iron samples in the solid phase. We compare our measured to calculated spectra from ab initio restricted active space (RAS) theory and discuss possible mechanisms for the observed dose-dependent damage of Mn-III(acac)(3) in solution. On the basis of our results, we assess the influence of sample damage in other experimental studies with soft X-rays from storage-ring synchrotron radiation sources and X-ray free-electron lasers.
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9. |
- Mitzner, Rolf, et al.
(author)
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L-Edge X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy of Dilute Systems Relevant to Metalloproteins Using an X-ray Free-Electron Laser
- 2013
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In: The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1948-7185. ; 4:21, s. 3641-3647
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- L-edge spectroscopy of 3d transition metals provides important electronic structure information and has been used in many fields. However, the use of this method for studying dilute aqueous systems, such as metalloenzymes, has not been prevalent because of severe radiation damage and the lack of suitable detection systems. Here we present spectra from a dilute Mn aqueous solution using a high-transmission zone-plate spectrometer at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS). The spectrometer has been optimized for discriminating the Mn L-edge signal from the overwhelming 0 K-edge background that arises from water and protein itself, and the ultrashort LCLS X-ray pulses can outrun X-ray induced damage. We show that the deviations of the partial-fluorescence yield-detected spectra from the true absorption can be well modeled using the state-dependence of the fluorescence yield, and discuss implications for the application of our concept to biological samples.
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10. |
- Schröder, Henning, et al.
(author)
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Varying photo-dissociation mechanisms in Fe(CO)5 and Cr(CO)6 from femtosecond valence photoemission and excited-state moleculardynamics simulations
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Other publication (other academic/artistic)abstract
- We present measured and calculated time-resolved photoelectron spectra of photoexcited gas-phase Fe(CO)5 and Cr(CO)6. Upon electronic excitation with 266 nm pump pulses and by probing with 23 eV photons from a femtosecond high-order har-monic generation source, we observe differences between Fe(CO)5 and Cr(CO)6 that indicate that the excited-state and dissociation dynamics are slower in Fe(CO)5 than in Cr(CO)6. Changing photoelectron intensities and binding energies combined with excited-state molecular dynamics simulations indicate repopulations of excited states from bound excited to dissociative excited states and to the dissociated species. We find that the more open and flexible structure of Fe(CO)5 with larger metal-carbonyl angles enables the photoexcited states of Fe(CO)5 to dissipate energy by angular distortions as observed in longer populations of bound excited states. The more compactand closed structure of Cr(CO)6 does not enable this relaxation resulting in fasterdissociation.
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