Dendrimer Disassembly in the Gas Phase: A Cascade Fragmentation Reaction of Fréchet Dendrons

The mass spectrometric characterization of Fréchet‐type dendrons is reported. In order to provide the charges necessary for electrospray ionization, dendrons bearing an OH group at the focal point can be deprotonated and observed in the negative ion mode. Alternatively, the corresponding bromides can be converted to quaternary ammonium ions that can easily be detected in the positive mode. If the latter ions are subjected to collision‐induced dissociation experiments, a fragmentation cascade begins with the dissociation of the focal amine. The focal benzyl cation quickly decomposes in a fragmentation cascade from the focal point to the periphery until the peripheral benzyl (or naphthylmethyl) cations are formed. Five different mechanisms are discussed in detail, three of which can be excluded based on experimental evidence. The cascade fragmentation is reminiscent of self‐immolative dendrimers.     

Radical Formation in the Gas‐Phase Ozonolysis of Deprotonated Cysteine

Although the deleterious effects of ozone on the human respiratory system are well‐known, many of the precise chemical mechanisms that both cause damage and afford protection in the pulmonary epithelial lining fluid are poorly understood. As a key first step to elucidating the intrinsic reactivity of ozone with proteins, its reactions with deprotonated cysteine [Cys?H]^? are examined in the gas phase. Reaction proceeds at near the collision limit to give a rich set of products including 1) sequential oxygen atom abstraction reactions to yield cysteine sulfenate, sulfinate and sulfonate anions, and significantly 2) sulfenate radical anions formed by ejection of a hydroperoxy radical. The free‐radical pathway occurs only when both thiol and carboxylate moieties are available, implicating electron‐transfer as a key step in this reaction. This novel and facile reaction is also observed in small cys‐containing peptides indicating a possible role for this chemistry in protein ozonolysis.     

Arginine‐Facilitated α‐ and π‐Radical Migrations in Glycylarginyltryptophan Radical Cations

We have used model tripeptides GXW (with X being one of the amino acid residues glycine (G), alanine (A), leucine (L), phenylalanine (F), glutamic acid (E), histidine (H), lysine (K), or arginine (R)) to study the effects of the basicity of the amino acid residue on the radical migrations and dissociations of odd‐electron molecular peptide radical cations M^.+ in the gas phase. Low‐energy collision‐induced dissociation (CID) experiments revealed that the interconvertibility of the isomers [G^.XW]⁺ (radical centered on the N‐terminal α‐carbon atom) and [GXW]^.+ (radical centered on the π system of the indolyl ring) generally increased upon increasing the proton affinity of residue X. When X was arginine, the most basic amino acid, the two isomers were fully interconvertible and produced almost identical CID spectra despite the different locations of their initial radical sites. The presence of the very basic arginine residue allowed radical migrations to proceed readily among the [G^.RW]⁺ and [GRW]^.+ isomers prior to their dissociations. Density functional theory calculations revealed that the energy barriers for isomerizations among the α‐carbon‐centered radical [G^.RW]⁺, the π‐centered radical [GRW]^.+, and the β‐carbon‐centered radical [GRW_β^.]⁺ (ca. 32–36 kcal mol⁻¹) were comparable with those for their dissociations (ca. 32–34 kcal mol⁻¹). The arginine residue in these GRW radical cations tightly sequesters the proton, thereby resulting in minimal changes in the chemical environment during the radical migrations, in contrast to the situation for the analogous GGW system, in which the proton is inefficiently stabilized during the course of radical migration.     

Molecular Salt Effects in the Gas Phase: Tuning the Kinetic Basicity of [HCCLiCl]− and [HCCMgCl2]− by LiCl and MgCl2

A combination of gas‐phase ion–molecule reaction experiments and theoretical kinetic modeling is used to examine how a salt can influence the kinetic basicity of organometallates reacting with water. [HC?CLiCl]^? reacts with water more rapidly than [HC?CMgCl₂]^?, consistent with the higher reactivity of organolithium versus organomagnesium reagents. Addition of LiCl to [HC?CLiCl]^? or [HC?CMgCl₂]^? enhances their reactivity towards water by a factor of about 2, while addition of MgCl₂ to [HC?CMgCl₂]^? enhances its reactivity by a factor of about 4. Ab initio calculations coupled with master equation/RRKM theory kinetic modeling show that these reactions proceed via a mechanism involving formation of a water adduct followed by rearrangement, proton transfer, and acetylene elimination as either discrete or concerted steps. Both the energy and entropy requirements for these elementary steps need to be considered in order to explain the observed kinetics.     

Reactions in Nitroimidazole Triggered by Low‐Energy (0–2 eV) Electrons: Methylation at N1‐H Completely Blocks Reactivity

Low‐energy electrons (LEEs) at energies of less than 2 eV effectively decompose 4‐nitroimidazole (4NI) by dissociative electron attachment (DEA). The reactions include simple bond cleavages but also complex reactions involving multiple bond cleavages and formation of new molecules. Both simple and complex reactions are associated with pronounced sharp features in the anionic yields, which are interpreted as vibrational Feshbach resonances acting as effective doorways for DEA. The remarkably rich chemistry of 4NI is completely blocked in 1‐methyl‐4‐nitroimidazole (Me4NI), that is, upon methylation of 4NI at the N1 site. These remarkable results have also implications for the development of nitroimidazole based radiosensitizers in tumor radiation therapy.     

Gas‐phase basicity of 2‐furaldehyde

2‐Furaldehyde (2‐FA), also known as furfural or 2‐furancarboxaldehyde, is an heterocyclic aldehyde that can be obtained from the thermal dehydration of pentose monosaccharides. This molecule can be considered as an important sustainable intermediate for the preparation of a great variety of chemicals, pharmaceuticals and furan‐based polymers. Despite the great importance of this molecule, its gas‐phase basicity (GB) has never been measured. In this work, the GB of 2‐FA was determined by the extended Cooks's kinetic method from electrospray ionization triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometric experiments along with theoretical calculations. As expected, computational results identify the aldehydic oxygen atom of 2‐FA as the preferred protonation site. The geometries of O‐O‐cis and O‐O‐trans 2‐FA and of their six different protomers were calculated at the B3LYP/aug‐TZV(d,p) level of theory; proton affinity (PA) values were also calculated at the G3(MP2, CCSD(T)) level of theory. The experimental PA was estimated to be 847.9 ± 3.8 kJ mol^?1, the protonation entropy 115.1 ± 5.03 J mol^?1 K^?1 and the GB 813.6 ± 4.08 kJ mol^?1 at 298 K. From the PA value, a ΔH°_f of 533.0 ± 12.4 kJ mol^?1 for protonated 2‐FA was derived. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Multicoincidence Study of Fragmentation Dynamics in Collision of γ‐Aminobutyric Acid with Low‐Energy Ions

Fragmentation of the γ‐aminobutyric acid molecule (GABA, NH₂(CH₂)₃COOH) following collisions with slow O⁶⁺ ions (v≈0.3 a.u.) was studied in the gas phase by a combined experimental and theoretical approach. In the experiments, a multicoincidence detection method was used to deduce the charge state of the GABA molecule before fragmentation. This is essential to unambiguously unravel the different fragmentation pathways. It was found that the molecular cations resulting from the collisions hardly survive the interaction and that the main dissociation channels correspond to formation of NH₂CH₂⁺, HCNH⁺, CH₂CH₂⁺, and COOH⁺ fragments. State‐of‐the‐art quantum chemistry calculations allow different fragmentation mechanisms to be proposed from analysis of the relevant minima and transition states on the computed potential‐energy surface. For example, the weak contribution at [M?18]⁺, where M is the mass of the parent ion, can be interpreted as resulting from H₂O loss that follows molecular folding of the long carbon chain of the amino acid.     

Gas‐Phase Affinity Scales for Typical Ionic Liquid Moieties Determined by using Cooks’ Kinetic Method

Gas‐phase affinity studies based on cations and anions commonly present in ionic liquid structures, give quantitative information about the magnitude of the interactions holding the two species together when ILs are formed. They also provide clues on how these interactions depend on the nature of the cationic and anionic moieties. In the present work, mass spectrometric experiments, performed using electrospray ionization quadrupole ion‐trap and Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry, were used to obtain two affinity scales by Cooks’ kinetic method: one scale for the various cations for the bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide anion, [NTf₂]^?, and another for the different anions for the 1‐butyl‐3‐methylimidazolium cation, [C₄mim]⁺. The obtained results are compared with previously reported data and discussed in terms of the structural characteristics of the different cationic and anionic species.     

Structure and Dynamics of Oligonucleotides in the Gas Phase

By combining ion‐mobility mass spectrometry experiments with sub‐millisecond classical and ab initio molecular dynamics we fully characterized, for the first time, the dynamic ensemble of a model nucleic acid in the gas phase under electrospray ionization conditions. The studied oligonucleotide unfolds upon vaporization, loses memory of the solution structure, and explores true gas‐phase conformational space. Contrary to our original expectations, the oligonucleotide shows very rich dynamics in three different timescales (multi‐picosecond, nanosecond, and sub‐millisecond). The shorter timescale dynamics has a quantum mechanical nature and leads to changes in the covalent structure, whereas the other two are of classical origin. Overall, this study suggests that a re‐evaluation on our view of the physics of nucleic acids upon vaporization is needed.     

Gas‐Phase Reaction of CeV2O7+ with C2H4: Activation of CC and CH Bonds

The reactivity of metal oxide clusters toward hydrocarbon molecules can be changed, tuned, or controlled by doping. Cerium‐doped vanadium cluster cations CeV₂O₇⁺ are generated by laser ablation, mass‐selected by a quadrupole mass filter, and then reacted with C₂H₄ in a linear ion trap reactor. The reaction is characterized by a reflectron time‐of‐flight mass spectrometer. Three types of reaction channels are observed: 1) single oxygen‐atom transfer , 2) double oxygen‐atom transfer , and 3) C?C bond cleavage. This study provides the first bimetallic oxide cluster ion, CeV₂O₇⁺, which gives rise to C?C bond cleavage of ethene. Neither Ce_xO_y^± nor V_xO_y^± alone possess the necessary topological and electronic properties to bring about such a reaction.     

2－脱氧－烟酰胺基－β－D－氨基葡萄糖的合成和表征

A new nicotinic acid derivative,2-deoxy-2-nicotinoylamido-β-D-glucopyranose, was synthesized with β-configuration exclusively. The structure and properties of the product were characterized by ^1H NMR, PT-IR, MS, DSC and polarimeter. The details of ^1H NMR spectrum and the mass spectrum proved that there are a great amount of hydrogen bonds in the product.     

Microsolvated and Chelated Butylzinc Cations: Formation,Relative Stability,and Unimolecular Gas‐Phase Chemistry

Solutions of butylzinc iodide in tetrahydrofuran, acetonitrile, and N,N‐dimethylformamide were analyzed by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. In all cases, microsolvated butylzinc cations [ZnBu(solvent)_n]⁺, n=1–3, were detected. The parallel observation of the butylzincate anion [ZnBuI₂]^? suggests that these ions result from disproportionation of neutral butylzinc iodide in solution. In the presence of simple bidentate ligands (1,2‐dimethoxyethane, N,N‐dimethyl‐2‐methoxyethylamine, and N,N,N′,N′‐tetramethylethylenediamine), chelate complexes of the type [ZnBu(ligand)]⁺ form quite readily. The relative stabilities of these complexes were probed by competition experiments and analysis of their unimolecular gas‐phase reactivity. Fragmentation of mass‐selected [ZnBu(ligand)]⁺ leads to the elimination of butene and formation of [ZnH(ligand)]⁺. In marked contrast, the microsolvated cations [ZnBu(solvent)_n]⁺ lose the attached solvent molecules upon gas‐phase fragmentation to produce bare [ZnBu]⁺, which subsequently dissociates into [C₄H₉]⁺ and Zn. This difference in reactivity resembles the situation in organozinc solution chemistry, in which chelating ligands are needed to activate dialkylzinc compounds for the nucleophilic addition to aldehydes.     

Reactivity Controlling Factors for an Aromatic Carbon‐Centered σ,σ,σ‐Triradical: The 4,5,8‐Tridehydroisoquinolinium Ion

The chemical properties of the 4,5,8‐tridehydroisoquinolinium ion (doublet ground state) and related mono‐ and biradicals were examined in the gas phase in a dual‐cell Fourier‐transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT‐ICR) mass spectrometer. The triradical abstracted three hydrogen atoms in a consecutive manner from tetrahydrofuran (THF) and cyclohexane molecules; this demonstrates the presence of three reactive radical sites in this molecule. The high (calculated) electron affinity (EA=6.06 eV) at the radical sites makes the triradical more reactive than two related monoradicals, the 5‐ and 8‐dehydroisoquinolinium ions (EA=4.87 and 5.06 eV, respectively), the reactivity of which is controlled predominantly by polar effects. Calculated triradical stabilization energies predict that the most reactive radical site in the triradical is not position C4, as expected based on the high EA of this radical site, but instead position C5. The latter radical site actually destabilizes the 4,8‐biradical moiety, which is singlet coupled. Indeed, experimental reactivity studies show that the radical site at C5 reacts first. This explains why the triradical is not more reactive than the 4‐dehydroisoquinolinium ion because the C5 site is the intrinsically least reactive of the three radical sites due to its low EA. Although both EA and spin–spin coupling play major roles in controlling the overall reactivity of the triradical, spin–spin coupling determines the relative reactivity of the three radical sites.