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1. The gas-phase formation mechanism of iodic acid as an atmospheric aerosol source

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-022-01067-z  

   Finkenzeller, Henning; Iyer, Siddharth; He, Xu-Cheng; Simon, Mario; Koenig, Theodore K.; Lee, Christopher F.; Valiev, Rashid; Hofbauer, Victoria; Amorim, Antonio; Baalbaki, Rima; et al (November 2022, Nature Chemistry)

   Abstract Iodine is a reactive trace element in atmospheric chemistry that destroys ozone and nucleates particles. Iodine emissions have tripled since 1950 and are projected to keep increasing with rising O 3 surface concentrations. Although iodic acid (HIO 3 ) is widespread and forms particles more efficiently than sulfuric acid, its gas-phase formation mechanism remains unresolved. Here, in CLOUD atmospheric simulation chamber experiments that generate iodine radicals at atmospherically relevant rates, we show that iodooxy hypoiodite, IOIO, is efficiently converted into HIO 3 via reactions (R1) IOIO + O 3  → IOIO 4 and (R2) IOIO 4  + H 2 O → HIO 3  + HOI +  (1) O 2 . The laboratory-derived reaction rate coefficients are corroborated by theory and shown to explain field observations of daytime HIO 3 in the remote lower free troposphere. The mechanism provides a missing link between iodine sources and particle formation. Because particulate iodate is readily reduced, recycling iodine back into the gas phase, our results suggest a catalytic role of iodine in aerosol formation. 

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2. Crystallographic Visualization of Distinct Iodic Aggregations in Isostructural Metal–Organic Frameworks

   https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.5c04910  

   Han, Yi; He, Yiwen; Fu, Yin-Ke; Huang, Hongliang; Li, Hongdong; Zhao, Jiong-Peng; Wang, Lei; Niu, Qian; Rosi, Nathaniel L (June 2025, Journal of the American Chemical Society)
3. The driving effects of common atmospheric molecules for formation of clusters: the case of sulfuric acid, nitric acid, hydrochloric acid, ammonia, and dimethylamine

   https://doi.org/10.1039/D3EA00118K  

   Longsworth, Olivia M.; Bready, Conor J.; Joines, Macie S.; Shields, George C. (January 2023, Environmental Science: Atmospheres)

   Secondary aerosols form from gas-phase molecules that create prenucleation complexes, which grow to form aerosols. Understanding how secondary aerosols form in the atmosphere is essential for a better understanding of global warming. 

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4. The driving effects of common atmospheric molecules for formation of clusters: the case of sulfuric acid, formic acid, hydrochloric acid, ammonia, and dimethylamine

   https://doi.org/10.1039/D3EA00087G  

   Longsworth, Olivia M.; Bready, Conor J.; Shields, George C. (September 2023, Environmental Science: Atmospheres)

   One of the main sources of uncertainty for understanding global warming is understanding the formation of larger secondary aerosols. 

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5. The proto-Nucleic Acid Builder: a software tool for constructing nucleic acid analogs

   https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkaa1159  

   Alenaizan, Asem; Barnett, Joshua L; Hud, Nicholas V; Sherrill, C David; Petrov, Anton S (December 2020, Nucleic Acids Research)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract The helical structures of DNA and RNA were originally revealed by experimental data. Likewise, the development of programs for modeling these natural polymers was guided by known structures. These nucleic acid polymers represent only two members of a potentially vast class of polymers with similar structural features, but that differ from DNA and RNA in the backbone or nucleobases. Xeno nucleic acids (XNAs) incorporate alternative backbones that affect the conformational, chemical, and thermodynamic properties of XNAs. Given the vast chemical space of possible XNAs, computational modeling of alternative nucleic acids can accelerate the search for plausible nucleic acid analogs and guide their rational design. Additionally, a tool for the modeling of nucleic acids could help reveal what nucleic acid polymers may have existed before RNA in the early evolution of life. To aid the development of novel XNA polymers and the search for possible pre-RNA candidates, this article presents the proto-Nucleic Acid Builder (https://github.com/GT-NucleicAcids/pnab), an open-source program for modeling nucleic acid analogs with alternative backbones and nucleobases. The torsion-driven conformation search procedure implemented here predicts structures with good accuracy compared to experimental structures, and correctly demonstrates the correlation between the helical structure and the backbone conformation in DNA and RNA. 

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