Water cluster anions studied by the long-range corrected density functional theory

Long-range corrected density functional theory (LC-DFT) is applied to a series of small water cluster anions(n= 2-6) to compute their vertical detachment energies (VDEs). The LC scheme is shown to eliminate an unphysical overestimation of the electron-water attraction in the hybrid functional by properly accounting for the long-range exchange repulsions. It is shown that a correct correlation energy behavior for a rapidly varying density is also important for describing a spatially extent, excess electron. The one-parameter progressive (OP) correlation functional, which satisfies this condition, leads to a remarkable improvement in the calculated VDE over the conventional one. The LC-BOP method produces highly accurate VDEs with a mean absolute deviation of 13.8 meV from the reference CCSD(T) results, reducing the error of B3LYP by more than 15 times. LC-BOP is found to be more accurate than MP2 which yields an excess electron underbound by 43.6 meV. The effect of basis sets on the calculated VDE is also examined. The aug-cc-pVDZ basis set with an extra diffuse function is found to be more accurate and reliable than the extended Pople-type basis sets used in the previous works. The extrapolation of the calculated VDE of different electron binding motifs is compared with the VDEs of experimentally observed three isomers (Verlet, J. R. R.; Bragg,A. E.; Kammrath, A.; Cheshnovsky, O.; Neumark, D. M. Science 2005, 307, 93).     

Reversed Assembly of Dyes in an RNA Duplex Compared with Those in DNA

We prepared reversed dye clusters by hybridizing two RNA oligomers, each of which tethered dyes (Methyl Red, 4′‐methylthioazobenzene, and thiazole orange) on D ‐threoninols (threoninol nucleotides) at the center of their strands. NMR spectroscopic analyses revealed that two dyes from each strand were axially stacked in an antiparallel manner to each other in the duplex, and were located adjacent to the 3′‐side of a natural nucleobase. Interestingly, this positional relationship of the dyes was completely the opposite of that assembled in DNA that we reported previously: dyes in DNA were located adjacent to the 5′‐side of a natural nucleobase. This observation was also consistent with the circular dichroism of dimerized dyes in which the Cotton effect of the dyes (i.e., the winding properties of two dyes) was inverted in RNA relative to that in DNA. Further spectroscopic analyses revealed that clustering of the dyes on RNA duplexes induced distinct hypsochromicity and narrowing of the band, thus demonstrating that the dyes were axially stacked (i.e., H‐aggregates) even on an A‐type helix. On the basis of these results, we also prepared heterodimers of a fluorophore (thiazole orange) and quencher (Methyl Red) in an RNA duplex. Fluorescence from thiazole orange was found to be strongly quenched by Methyl Red due to the excitonic interaction, so that the ratio of fluorescent intensities of the RNA–thiazole orange conjugate with and without its complementary strand carrying a quencher became as high as 27. We believe that these RNA–dye conjugates are potentially useful probes for real‐time monitoring of RNA interference (RNAi) mechanisms.     

A stimulus-responsive shape-persistent micelle bearing a calix[4]arene building block: reversible pH-dependent transition between spherical and cylindrical forms

A series of cationic calix[4]arene-based lipids with alkyl chains of varying length were newly synthesized, and the ones with propyl and hexyl tails, denoted by CaL[4]C3 and C6, respectively, were found to form spherical micelles at low pH (protonated state of the amine headgroup). Upon deprotonation with increasing pH, CaL[4]C3 showed a sphere-to-cylinder transition, while CaL[4]C6 changed from sphere, to cylinder, to monolayer vesicle. Synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) patterns from both spherical and cylindrical CaL[4]C3 micelles exhibited a sharp intensity minimum, indicating shape monodispersity. The monodispersity of the CaL[4]C3 spherical micelles was further confirmed by analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC). SAXS, AUC, and static light scattering agreeingly indicated an aggregation number of 6. In contrast, CaL[4]C6 exhibited polydispersity with an average aggregation number of 12. When the number of carbons of the alkyl chain was increased to 9 (CaL[4]C9), cylinder formed at low pH, while at high pH, no clear morphology could be observed. The present results indicate that a very precise combination of tail length, head volume, and rigidity of the building block is required to produce shape-persistent micelles and that the shape-persistence can be maintained upon a structural transition. An attempt to reconstruct a molecular model for the spherical CaL[4]C3 micelle was made with an ab initio shape determining program.     

Quantitative Rietveld texture analysis of CaSiO(3) perovskite deformed in a diamond anvil cell

The Rietveld method is used to extract quantitative texture information from a single synchrotron diffraction image of a CaSiO(3) perovskite sample deformed in axial compression in a diamond anvil cell. The image used for analysis was taken in radial geometry at 49?GPa and room temperature. We obtain a preferred orientation of {100} lattice planes oriented perpendicular to the compression direction and this is compatible with [Formula: see text] slip.     

Effects of thermal treatments on the recovery of adsorbed water and photocatalytic activities of TiO2 photocatalytic systems

The effects of thermal treatments on the rehydration process and photocatalytic activity were investigated by 1H NMR spectroscopy for six anatase abundant TiO2 photocatalysts with different properties. Acetic acid and benzoic acid were employed for photodecomposition in aqueous suspension. After the calcinations at 973 K, physisorbed water layers recovered relatively fast for P25, F4, and AMT-600 (shorter than 24 h) with no significant enhancement of the photocatalytic decomposition. On the other hand, for ST-01, UV-100, and AMT-100, the recovery was very slow (longer than 1 week) and only partially reversible, and the photocatalytic decomposition was considerably enhanced but retarded with rehydration. In the presence of adsorbed water, the binding of a carboxyl group of the molecules with adsorbed water is considered to compete with the direct adsorption on the surface, which reduces the amount of the direct adsorption and results in the reduction in the photocatalytic efficiency. In addition, the photocatalytic decomposition of benzoic acid with an aromatic ring was much faster in all of the TiO2 aqueous suspensions and more enhanced for the fully dehydroxylated TiO2 than that of acetic acid. These results suggest that the most efficient photocatalytic sites should be the hydrophobic sites on the TiO2 surface. The difference among the rehydration rates of different TiO2 is discussed in terms of thermally induced changes of surface morphology.     

Size-dependent carrier dynamics in CdS nanoparticles by femtosecond visible-pump/IR-probe measurements

Ultrafast photoexcited carrier dynamics in CdS nanoparticles prepared by an AOT/n-heptane reversed micelle system were investigated by a femtosecond visible-pump/mid-IR probe technique. A mid-IR probe beam was found to mainly probe the ultrafast dynamics of photoexcited electrons in the conduction band. Dispersions of CdS nanoparticles with 8 different mean diameters from 2.9 to 4.1 nm were prepared by tuning the mole ratio between water and AOT (W = [H(2)O]/[AOT]) in the reversed micelle systems. The excited state lifetime strongly depended on the mean size of CdS nanoparticles with a maximum around a mean diameter of 3.5 nm. This result was explained by considering the balance between the carrier recombination rates via surface states and those via interior states. The relationship between the excited state lifetime and the size of CdS nanoparticles was drastically changed when the surface was terminated by thiol molecules.     

Total synthesis of piericidin A1 and B1 and key analogues

Full details of the total synthesis of piericidin A1 and B1 and its extension to the preparation of a series of key analogues are described including ent-piericidin A1 (ent-1), 4'-deshydroxypiericidin A1 (58), 5'-desmethylpiericidin A1 (73), 4'-deshydroxy-5'-desmethylpiericidin A1 (75), and the corresponding analogues 51, 59, 76, and 77 bearing a simplified farnesyl side chain. The evaluation of these key analogues, along with those derived from their further functionalizations, permitted a scan of the key structural features providing new insights into the role of the substituents found in both the pyridyl core as well as the side chain. A strategic late stage heterobenzylic Stille cross-coupling reaction of the pyridyl core with the fully elaborated side chain permitted ready access to the analogues in which each half of the molecule could be systematically and divergently modified. The pyridyl cores were assembled enlisting inverse electron demand Diels-Alder reactions of N-sulfonyl-1-azabutadienes, while key elements of side chain syntheses include an anti selective asymmetric aldol to install the C9 and C10 relative and absolute stereochemistry (for natural and ent-1) and a modified Julia olefination for formation of the C5-C6 trans double bond with convergent assemblage of the side chains.     

Photocontrolled magnetization of CdS-modified Prussian blue nanoparticles

The first photocontrollable magnetic nanoparticles containing CdS and Prussian blue (PB) have been created using reverse micelles as nanoreactors. Photoinduced electron transfer from CdS to PB in the reverse micelle changed the magnetic properties of the composite nanoparticles from ferromagnetic to paramagnetic. The magnetization in the ferromagnetic region below 4 K was substantially decreased after UV light illumination and could be restored almost to its original level by thermal treatment at room temperature. This novel strategy of designing composite nanoparticles containing photoconductive semiconductors and magnetic materials to create photoswitchable magnetic materials may open many possibilities in the development of magneto-optical devices.     

Parallel Fock matrix construction with distributed shared memory model for the FMO‐MO method

A parallel Fock matrix construction program for FMO‐MO method has been developed with the distributed shared memory model. To construct a large‐sized Fock matrix during FMO‐MO calculations, a distributed parallel algorithm was designed to make full use of local memory to reduce communication, and was implemented on the Global Array toolkit. A benchmark calculation for a small system indicates that the parallelization efficiency of the matrix construction portion is as high as 93% at 1,024 processors. A large FMO‐MO application on the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) protein (17,246 atoms and 96,234 basis functions) was also carried out at the HF/6‐31G level of theory, with the frontier orbitals being extracted by a Sakurai‐Sugiura eigensolver. It takes 11.3 h for the FMO calculation, 49.1 h for the Fock matrix construction, and 10 min to extract 94 eigen‐components on a PC cluster system using 256 processors. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem, 2010