Dipole-Guided Electron Capture Causes Abnormal Dissociations of Phosphorylated Pentapeptides

Electron transfer and capture mass spectra of a series of doubly charged ions that were phosphorylated pentapeptides of a tryptic type (pS,A,A,A,R) showed conspicuous differences in dissociations of charge-reduced ions. Electron transfer from both gaseous cesium atoms at 100 keV kinetic energies and fluoranthene anion radicals in an ion trap resulted in the loss of a hydrogen atom, ammonia, and backbone cleavages forming complete series of sequence z ions. Elimination of phosphoric acid was negligible. In contrast, capture of low-energy electrons by doubly charged ions in a Penning ion trap induced loss of a hydrogen atom followed by elimination of phosphoric acid as the dominant dissociation channel. Backbone dissociations of charge-reduced ions also occurred but were accompanied by extensive fragmentation of the primary products. z-Ions that were terminated with a deaminated phosphoserine radical competitively eliminated phosphoric acid and H₂PO₄ radicals. A mechanism is proposed for this novel dissociation on the basis of a computational analysis of reaction pathways and transition states. Electronic structure theory calculations in combination with extensive molecular dynamics mapping of the potential energy surface provided structures for the precursor phosphopeptide dications. Electron attachment produces a multitude of low lying electronic states in charge-reduced ions that determine their reactivity in backbone dissociations and H- atom loss. The predominant loss of H atoms in ECD is explained by a distortion of the Rydberg orbital space by the strong dipolar field of the peptide dication framework. The dipolar field steers the incoming electron to preferentially attach to the positively charged arginine side chain to form guanidinium radicals and trigger their dissociations.     

Thermolysis studies on platinacycloalkane complexes

Thermal decomposition studies on platinacycloalkanes of the type Pt(CH₂)_mL₂ (where m = 6,7,8,10 and L₂ = dppp {1,3-bis(diphenylphosphino)propane}, dppe {1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane} or L = PPh₃, ^tBu₃P) are described. The results reveal that the organic product distribution depends on various factors such as the nature of ligand, the metal system, the mode of decomposition, the ring size and the temperature. Possible mechanistic pathways for the formation of various products are discussed. These platinacycloalkanes can be used as models for metallacycloalkane intermediates in catalytic reactions.     

Isotope effects in electron spin resonance: the negative ion of cyclo-octatetraene-1-d

Replacement of one hydrogen atom by deuterium in the negative ion of cyclo-octatetraene, makes no significant difference to the electron spin densities at the hydrogen nuclei. This result contrasts with a recent observation that mono-deuteration produces a measurable change in the spin distribution in the benzene negative ion. The difference between the two systems is interpreted in terms of the Jahn-Teller effect.     

Bose–Einstein condensation in atomic hydrogen

The addition of atomic hydrogen to the set of gases in which Bose–Einstein condensation can be observed expands the range of parameters over which this remarkable phenomenon can be studied. Hydrogen, with the lowest atomic mass, has the highest transition temperature, 50 μK in our experiments. The very weak interaction between the atoms results in a high ratio of the condensate to normal gas densities, even at modest condensate fractions. Using cryogenic rather than laser precooling generates large condensates. Finally, two-photon spectroscopy is introduced as a versatile probe of the phase transition: condensation in real space is manifested by the appearance of a high-density component in the gas, condensation in momentum space is readily apparent in the momentum distribution, and the phase transition line can be delineated by following the evolution of the density of the normal component.     

Random cluster models for icosahedral phase alloys

We present results on computer generated random cluster models for icosahedral phase alloys. By the application of physically motivated constraints on the local atomic cluster configurations, the model achieves long range translational order comparable to, or greater than, that found in simple icosahedral alloys such asi-AlMnSi andi-AlLiCu. The parallel and perpendicular space structures are explored in some detail including a comparison with experimental powder diffraction patterns and an examination of the phason fluctuations. The latter are shown to decrease markedly with increased constraint on the local environment, but the remaining phason strain would seem finally not to vanish with increasing model size. Our model is compared with other cluster models for quasicrystalline materials and is shown to possess a density and connectivity very close to those of Elser's (best) model and those predicted by Henley for a canonical tiling. The relation of this model to recently discovered icosahedral phase alloys with resolution limited diffraction peak widths, which are essentially free of phason strain, is also discussed.     

Spin flip in inelastic scattering: A possible explanation of the observed backward-angle peak

Utilizing an analogy between the spin-orbit field and a magnetic field, it is shown that a plane-wave Born-approximation calculation in two dimensions gives a good qualitative account of the observed features of the probability of spin flip in inelastic scattering. Comparisons of the two-dimensional model and the collective model DWBA are given for the reaction ⁵⁸Ni(p, p′)⁵⁸Ni(2⁺) at 20 MeV and 100 MeV.