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1. Unraveling the Vibrational Spectral Signatures of a Dislocated H Atom in Model Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer Dyad Systems

   https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpca.3c00524  

   Chen, Liangyi; Sibert, Edwin L.; Fournier, Joseph A. (April 2023, The Journal of Physical Chemistry A)

   Phenol–benzimidazole and phenol–pyridine proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) dyad systems are computationally investigated to resolve the origins of the asymmetrically broadened H-bonded OH stretch transitions that have been previously reported using cryogenic ion vibrational spectroscopy in the ground electronic state. Two-dimensional (2D) potentials describing the strongly shared H atom are predicted to be very shallow along the H atom transfer coordinate, enabling dislocation of the H atom between the donor and acceptor groups upon excitation of the OH vibrational modes. These soft H atom potentials result in strong coupling between the OH modes, which exhibit significant bend-stretch mixing, and a large number of normal mode coordinates. Vibrational spectra are calculated using a Hamiltonian that linearly and quadratically couples the H atom potentials to over two dozen of the most strongly coupled normal modes treated at the harmonic level. The calculated vibrational spectra qualitatively reproduce the asymmetric shape and breadth of the experimentally observed bands in the 2300–3000 cm–1 range. Interestingly, these transitions fall well above the predicted OH stretch fundamentals, which are computed to be surprisingly red-shifted (<2000 cm–1). Time-dependent calculations predict rapid (<100 fs) relaxation of the excited OH modes and instant response from the lower-frequency normal modes, corroborating the strong coupling predicted by the model Hamiltonian. The results highlight a unique broadening mechanism and complicated anharmonic effects present within these biologically relevant PCET model systems. 

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2. Observation of the polaronic character of excitons in a two-dimensional semiconducting magnet CrI3

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18627-x  

   Jin, Wencan; Kim, Hyun Ho; Ye, Zhipeng; Ye, Gaihua; Rojas, Laura; Luo, Xiangpeng; Yang, Bowen; Yin, Fangzhou; Horng, Jason Shih An; Tian, Shangjie; et al (September 2020, Nature Communications)

   Abstract Exciton dynamics can be strongly affected by lattice vibrations through electron-phonon coupling. This is rarely explored in two-dimensional magnetic semiconductors. Focusing on bilayer CrI₃, we first show the presence of strong electron-phonon coupling through temperature-dependent photoluminescence and absorption spectroscopy. We then report the observation of periodic broad modes up to the 8th order in Raman spectra, attributed to the polaronic character of excitons. We establish that this polaronic character is dominated by the coupling between the charge-transfer exciton at 1.96 eV and a longitudinal optical phonon at 120.6 cm⁻¹. We further show that the emergence of long-range magnetic order enhances the electron-phonon coupling strength by ~50% and that the transition from layered antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic order tunes the spectral intensity of the periodic broad modes, suggesting a strong coupling among the lattice, charge and spin in two-dimensional CrI₃. Our study opens opportunities for tailoring light-matter interactions in two-dimensional magnetic semiconductors. 

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3. A widespread porin-cytochrome complex Om(abc)B kickstarts microbial respiration and nanowire formation

   https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5369439/v1  

   Erwin, Joseph; Shen, Cong; Saldivar, Vanessa; Morales, Aldo Salazar; Pentalic, Vasilije; Samatey, Fadel; Dahl, Peter; Gu, Yangqi; Yalcin, Sibel Ebru; Malvankar, Nikhil (November 2024, Research Square)

   Abstract Microbial respiration via extracellular electron transfer (EET) drives several globally-important environmental processes and has applications in bioenergy, bioremediation, and bioelectronics.Geobacter sulfurreducensproduce micrometer-long cytochrome nanowires for long-range (>10 µm) EET, but also require transmembrane porin-cytochrome complexes (PCCs), which can only perform EET on the cell surface. It was unknown why cells performing long-range EET need both PCCs and nanowires. Using Om(abc)B and OmcS as a model PCC and nanowire, respectively, for EET to Fe(III), we show that PCCs and nanowires form sequential, independent EET pathways where PCCs first kickstart EET and provide energy crucial for nanowire synthesis, and then nanowires perform long-range EET. Our model explains why both PCCs and nanowires are necessary. To understand the underlying EET mechanism, we purified native Om(ab)B and OmcB and found high excitonic coupling among hemes. Their midpoint reduction potentials (-182, -167 mV, respectively) are tuned for efficient electron transport. Additionally, OmcB transfers electrons to Fe(III) ~5 times more efficiently than OmcS. Our work suggests that the metabolic trade-off between PCCs and nanowires results from efficient proteome allocation. Notably, PCCs are widespread in environmentally-important bacteria and co-evolved with OmcS nanowires. This previously-undescribed nanowire synthesis strategy could accelerate EET in diverse microbes and environments. 

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4. The missing NH stretch fundamental in S ₁ methyl anthranilate: IR-UV double resonance experiments and local mode theory

   https://doi.org/10.1039/D0CP01916J  

   Blodgett, Karl N.; Fischer, Joshua L.; Zwier, Timothy S.; Sibert, Edwin L. (July 2020, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics)

   The infrared spectra of jet-cooled methyl anthranilate (MA) and the MA–H 2 O complex are reported in both S 0 and S 1 states, recorded using fluorescence-dip infrared (FDIR) spectroscopy under jet-cooled conditions. Using a combination of local mode CH stretch modeling and scaled harmonic vibrational character, a near-complete assignment of the infrared spectra is possible over the 1400–3700 cm −1 region. While the NH stretch fundamentals are easily observed in the S 0 spectrum, in the S 1 state, the hydrogen bonded NH stretch shift is not readily apparent. Scaled harmonic calculations predict this fundamental at just below 2900 cm −1 with an intensity around 400 km mol −1 . However, the experimental spectrum shows no evidence of this transition. A local mode theory is developed in which the NH stretch vibration is treated adiabatically. Minimizing the energy of the corresponding stretch state with one quantum of excitation leads to a dislocation of the H atom where there is equal sharing between N and O atoms. The sharing occurs as a result of significant molecular arrangement due to strong coupling of this NH stretch to other internal degrees of freedom and in particular to the contiguous HNC bend. A two-dimensional model of the coupling between the NH stretch and this bend highlights important nonlinear effects that are not captured by low order vibrational perturbation theory. In particular, the model predicts a dramatic dilution of the NH stretch oscillator strength over many transitions spread over more than 1000 cm −1 , making it difficult to observe experimentally. 

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5. Panoramic portrait of primary molecular events preceding excited state proton transfer in water

   https://doi.org/10.1039/C6SC00672H  

   Liu, Weimin; Wang, Yanli; Tang, Longteng; Oscar, Breland G.; Zhu, Liangdong; Fang, Chong (January 2016, Chemical Science)

   Photochemistry powers numerous processes from luminescence and human vision, to light harvesting. However, the elucidation of multidimensional photochemical reaction coordinates on molecular timescales remains challenging. We developed wavelength-tunable femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy to simultaneously achieve pre-resonance enhancement for transient reactant and product species of the widely used photoacid pyranine undergoing excited-state proton transfer (ESPT) reaction in solution. In the low-frequency region, the 280 cm −1 ring deformation mode following 400 nm photoexcitation exhibits pronounced intensity oscillations on the sub-picosecond timescale due to anharmonic vibrational coupling to the 180 cm −1 hydrogen-bond stretching mode only in ESPT-capable solvents, indicating a primary event of functional relevance. This leads to the contact ion pair formation on the 3 ps timescale before diffusion-controlled separation. The intermolecular 180 cm −1 mode also reveals vibrational cooling time constants, ∼500 fs and 45 ps in both H 2 O and D 2 O, which differ from ESPT time constants of ∼3/8 and 90/250 ps in H 2 O/D 2 O, respectively. Spectral results using H 2 18 O further substantiate the functional role of the intermolecular 180 cm −1 mode in modulating the distance between proton donor and acceptor and forming the transient ion pair. The direct observation of molecular structural evolution across a wide spectral region during photochemical reactions enriches our fundamental understanding of potential energy surface and holds the key to advancing energy and biological sciences with exceptional atomic and temporal precision. 

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