Octahedral (cis-cyclam)iron(III) complexes with O,N-coordinated o-iminosemiquinonate(1-) pi radicals and o-imidophenolate(2-) anions

Three octahedral complexes containing a (cis-cyclam)iron(III) moiety and an O,N-coordinated o-iminobenzosemiquinonate pi radical anion have been synthesized and characterized by X-ray crystallography at 100 K: [Fe(cis-cyclam)(L(1-3)(ISQ))](PF(6))(2) (1-3), where (L(1-3)(ISQ)) represents the monoanionic pi radicals derived from one-electron oxidations of the respective dianion of o-imidophenolate(2-), L(1), 2-imido-4,6-di-tert-butylphenolate(2-), L(2), and N-phenyl-2-imido-4,6-di-tert-butylphenolate(2-), L(3). Compounds 1-3 possess an S(t) = 0 ground state, which is attained via strong intramolecular antiferromagnetic exchange coupling between a low-spin central ferric ion (S(Fe) = 1/2) and an o-imino-benzosemiquinonate(1-) pi radical (S(rad) = 1/2). Zero-field M?ssbauer spectra of 1-3 at 80 K confirm the low-spin ferric electron configuration: isomer shift delta = 0.26 mm s(-1) and quadrupole splitting DeltaE(Q) = 1.96 mm s(-1) for 1, 0.28 and 1.93 for 2, and 0.33 and 1.88 for 3. All three complexes undergo a reversible, one-electron reduction of the coordinated o-imino-benzosemiquinonate ligand, yielding an [Fe(III)(cis-cyclam)(L(1-3)(IP))](+) monocation. The monocations of 1 and 2 display very similar rhombic signals in the X-band EPR spectra (g = 2.15, 2.12, and 1.97), indicative of low-spin ferric species. In contast, the monocation of 3 contains a high-spin ferric center (S(Fe) = 5/2) as is deduced from its M?ssbauer and EPR spectra.     

The Conformations of Amino Acids on a Gold(111) Surface

The interactions of amino acids with inorganic surfaces are of interest for biologists and biotechnologists alike. However, the structural determinants of peptide–surface interactions have remained elusive, but are important for a structural understanding of the interactions of biomolecules with gold surfaces. Molecular dynamics simulations are a tool to analyze structures of amino acids on surfaces. However, such an approach is challenging due to lacking parameterization for many surfaces and the polarizability of metal surfaces. Herein, we report DFT calculations of amino acid fragments in vacuo and molecular dynamics simulations of the interaction of all amino acids with a gold(111) surface in explicit solvent, using the recently introduced polarizable gold force field GolP. We describe preferred orientations of the amino acids on the metal surface. We find that all amino acids preferably interact with the gold surface at least partially with their backbone, underlining an unfolding propensity of gold surfaces.     

MOVPE homoepitaxy of high-quality GaN: Crystal growth and devices

Epitaxial growth on GaN bulk single crystal substrates sets new standards in GaN material quality. The outstanding properties provide insights into fundamental material parameters (e.g. lattice constants, exciton binding energies, etc.) with a precision not obtainable from heteroepitaxial growth on sapphire or SiC. With metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) we realized unstrained GaN layers with dislocation densities about six orders of magnitude lower than in heteroepitaxy. By the use of dry etching techniques for surface preparation, an important improvement of crystal quality is achieved. Those layers reveal an exceptional optical quality as determined by a reduction of the low-temperature photoluminescence (PL) linewidth from 5 meV to 0.1 meV and a reduced X-ray diffraction (XRD) rocking curve width from 400 to 20 arcsec. As a consequence of the narrow PL linewidths, new features as, e. g. a fivefold fine structure of the donor-bound exciton line at 3.471 eV was detected. Additionally, all three free excitons as well as their excited states are visible in PL at 2 K.

Dry etching techniques for surface preparation allow morphologies of the layers suitable for device applications. We report on InGaN/GaN multi-quantum-well (MQW)_ structures as well as GaN pn- and InGaN/GaN double heterostructure light emitting diodes (LEDs) on GaN bulk single crystal substrates. Those LEDs are twice as bright as their counterparts grown on sapphire. In addition they reveal an improved high power characteristics, which is attributed to an enhanced crystal quality and an increased p-doping.     

Photolytic generation of benzhydryl cations and radicals from quaternary phosphonium salts: how highly reactive carbocations survive their first nanoseconds

UV irradiation (266 or 280 nm) of benzhydryl triarylphosphonium salts Ar(2)CH-PAr(3)(+)X(-) yields benzhydryl cations Ar(2)CH(+) and/or benzhydryl radicals Ar(2)CH(?). The efficiency and mechanism of the photo-cleavage were studied by nanosecond laser flash photolysis and by ultrafast spectroscopy with a state-of-the-art femtosecond transient spectrometer. The influences of the photo-electrofuge (Ar(2)CH(+)), the photo-nucleofuge (PPh(3) or P(p-Cl-C(6)H(4))(3)), the counterion (X(-) = BF(4)(-), SbF(6)(-), Cl(-), or Br(-)), and the solvent (CH(2)Cl(2) or CH(3)CN) were investigated. Photogeneration of carbocations from Ar(2)CH-PAr(3)(+)BF(4)(-) or -SbF(6)(-) is considerably more efficient than from typical neutral precursors (e.g., benzhydryl chlorides or bromides). The photochemistry of phosphonium salts is controlled by the degree of ion pairing, which depends on the solvent and the concentration of the phosphonium salts. High yields of carbocations are obtained by photolyses of phosphonium salts with complex counterions (X(-) = BF(4)(-) or SbF(6)(-)), while photolyses of phosphonium halides Ar(2)CH-PPh(3)(+)X(-) (X(-) = Cl(-) or Br(-)) in CH(2)Cl(2) yield benzhydryl radicals Ar(2)CH(?) due to photo-electron transfer in the excited phosphonium halide ion pair. At low concentrations in CH(3)CN, the precursor salts are mostly unpaired, and the photo-cleavage mechanism is independent of the nature of the counter-anions. Dichloromethane is better suited for generating the more reactive benzhydryl cations than the more polar and more nucleophilic solvents CH(3)CN or CF(3)CH(2)OH. Efficient photo-generation of the most reactive benzhydryl cations (3,5-F(2)-C(6)H(3))(2)CH(+) and (4-(CF(3))-C(6)H(4))(2)CH(+) was only achieved using the photo-leaving group P(p-Cl-C(6)H(4))(3) and the counter-anion SbF(6)(-) in CH(2)Cl(2). The lifetimes of the photogenerated benzhydryl cations depend greatly on the decay mechanisms, which can be reactions with the solvent, with the photo-leaving group PAr(3), or with the counter-anion X(-) of the precursor salt. However, the nature of the photo-leaving group and the counterion of the precursor phosphonium salt do not affect the rates of the reactions of the obtained benzhydryl cations toward added nucleophiles. The method presented in this work allows us to generate a wide range of donor- and acceptor-substituted benzhydryl cations Ar(2)CH(+) for the purpose of studying their electrophilic reactivities.