On the formation of radical dications of protonated amino acids in a "microsolution" of water or acetonitrile and their reactivity towards the solvent

In high-energy collisions (50 keV) between O2 and protonated amino acids AH+, radical dications AH2+* are formed for A = Phe, His, Met, Tyr, and Trp. When solvated by water or acetonitrile (S), AH2+*(S)1,2 are formed for A = Arg, His, Met, Tyr, and Trp. The stability of the hydrogen-deficient AH2+* in the "microsolution" depends on the energetics of the electron transfer reaction AH2+* +S --> AH++S+*, the hydrogen abstraction reaction AH2+*+S --> AH2(2+)+S-H]*, and the proton transfer reaction AH2+* + S --> A+*+SH+. Using B3LYP/ 6-311+G(2d,p)//B3LYP/6-31+G(d) model chemistry, we describe these three reactions in detail for A=Tyr and find that the first two reactions are unfavorable whereas the third one is favorable. However, energy is required for the formation of Tyr+* and SH+ from TyrH2+*(S) to overcome the Coulomb barrier, which renders the complex observable with a life-time larger than 5 micros. The ionization energy, IE, of TyrH+ is calculated to be 11.1 eV in agreement with an experimental measurement of 10.1+/-2.1 eV (IE(CH3CN)+IE(Tyr)]/ 2); hydration further lowers the IE by 0.3 eV IE(TyrH+(H2O) = 10.8 eV, calculated]. We estimate the ionization energies of TrpH+, HisH+, and MetH+ to be 10.1+/-2.1 eV, 12.4+/-0.2 eV, and 12.4+/-0.2 eV, and that of PheH+ to be larger than 12.6 eV.