Theory of chemical bonds in metalloenzymes XXII: a concerted bond-switching mechanism for the oxygen–oxygen bond formation coupled with one electron transfer for water oxidation in the oxygen-evolving complex of photosystem II

ABSTRACT

QM(UB3LYP)/MM(AMBER) calculations were performed for the locations of the transition structure (TS) of the oxygen–oxygen (O–O) bond formation in the S₄ state of the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC) of photosystem II (PSII). The natural orbital (NO) analysis of the broken-symmetry (BS) solutions was also performed to elucidate the nature of the chemical bonds at TS on the basis of several chemical indices defined by the occupation numbers of NO. The computational results revealed a concerted bond switching (CBS) mechanism for the oxygen–oxygen bond formation coupled with the one-electron transfer (OET) for water oxidation in OEC of PSII. The orbital interaction between the σ-HOMO of the Mn(IV)₄–O₍₅₎ bond and the π*-LUMO of the Mn(V)₁=O₍₆₎ bond plays an important role for the concerted O–O bond formation for water oxidation in the CaMn₄O₆ cluster of OEC of PSII. One electron transfer (OET) from the π-HOMO of the Mn(V)₁=O₍₆₎ bond to the σ*-LUMO of the Mn(IV)₄–O₍₅₎ bond occurs for the formation of electron transfer diradical, where the generated anion radical [Mn(IV)₄–O₍₅₎]^-? part is relaxed to the ?Mn(III)₄?…?O₍₅₎^- structure and the cation radical [O₍₆₎=Mn(V)₁]⁺ ? part is relaxed to the ⁺O₍₆₎–Mn(IV)₁? structure because of the charge-spin separation for the electron-and hole-doped Mn–oxo bonds. Therefore, the local spins are responsible for the one-electron reductions of Mn(IV)₄->Mn(III)₄ and Mn(V)₁->Mn(IV)₁. On the other hand, the O₍₅₎^- and O₍₆₎⁺ sites generated undergo the O–O bond formation in the CaMn₄O₆ cluster. The Ca(II) ion in the cubane- skeleton of the CaMn₄O₆ cluster assists the above orbital interactions by the lowering of the orbital energy levels of π*-LUMO of Mn(V)₁=O₍₆₎ and σ*-LUMO of Mn(IV)₄–O₍₅₎, indicating an important role of its Lewis acidity. Present CBS mechanism for the O–O bond formation coupled with one electron reductions of the high-valent Mn ions is different from the conventional radical coupling (RC) and acid-base (AB) mechanisms for water oxidation in artificial and native photosynthesis systems. The proton-coupled electron transfer (PC-OET) mechanism for the O–O bond formation is also touched in relation to the CBS-OET mechanism.     

氨基酸与钠离子非共价键相互作用的电喷雾质谱研究

实验研究中常常观察到钠离子与一些多肽或蛋白质有较强的非共价键结合能力,这种非共价键相互作用可能与生物的一些功能和活性有关。为了进一步了解这一结合作用,我们应用电喷雾质谱研究了常见的20种氨基酸与钠离子在溶液中的非共价键相互作用。实验研究中发现脯氨酸和苯丙胺酸与钠离子有较强的非共价键结合能力。     

Multilayered Cu–Ti deposition on silicon substrates for chemiresistor applications

Abstract

On the perspective to develop CuO–TiO₂ MOS, multilayered Cu and Ti thin layers were alternatively deposited on silicon wafers using 25?keV Ar?+?ion beam sputtering and, subsequently, oxidized by thermal annealing in air at 400?°C for 24?h. The deposited films have variable ratios of the Cu and Ti % at. One of the main goal is to obtain such multilayers avoiding the presence of Cu–Ti–O compounds. The samples were characterized in terms of composition (by RBS and SIMS analyses) and morphology (by AFM and SEM investigations). In particular, SIMS maps allows to observe the spatial distribution and thickness of each phase of the Cu/Ti multilayers, and further to observe Cu diffusion and mixing with Ti, as well as phase separation of CuO and TiO₂ in the samples. The reasons of this effect represent an open issue that has to investigated, in order to improve the MOS fabrication.     

Reaction des lithiens avec les organophosphores. Reaction d'addition du t-butyllithium sur le noyau benzenique des sels de phenylphosphoniums

A new reaction of organolithium compounds with phosphonium salts is described; reaction of t-butyllithium with dibenzylaminophosphonium or tetraphenylphosphonium bromides takes place through addition of the t-butyl group on a benzene ring at the position para to the phosphorus atom, the ylid formed reacts in a characteristic Wittig reaction with p-tolylaldehyde.     

Two-dimensional catena–polymer [[[bis (µ-aqua)(bis (µ-cpiap-K2O1:O2)sodium(I))] (µ-chlorido) bis(µ-cpiap-K5N1:O1:O2:O3,O3′)dicopper(II)]bis(µ-aqua)(aqua)bis(cpiap-K2O1,O2)copper(II)] hexa hydrate

The new title two-dimensional hetero-tetra nuclear Cu₃–Na coordination polymer {[NaCu₃Cl(cpiap)₂(H₂O)₃]_n·6nH₂O} (1) consists of crystallographically two-independent copper(II) centers, each bridged by a sodium cation through carboxylate-oxygen of the deprotonated H₃cpiap ligand (H₃cpiap = 2-(carboxyphenyl)iminoaceticpropanoic acid) to Cu^II (2) and Cu^II (2⁻) cations, and through water molecules to Cu^II (1) cation. Cu^II (2) and Cu^II (1) cations are bridged by carboxylate-oxygen atoms of the ligand in a syn-anti mode which, alternate regularly within the chain being bridged by a tetra coordinated sodium cation. Each Cu^II (2) and Cu^II (2⁻) cation in (1) is in an octahedral environment formed by four carboxylate-oxygens from two cpiap³⁻ ligands, one nitrogen atom and a bridging chloride atom. Cu^II (1) cation is in a square pyramidal environment formed by three water molecules and two carboxylate-oxygens from two cpiap³⁻ ligands. The ligand acts simultaneously as monodentate and tridentate toward Cu^II (1) and Cu^II (2) cations respectively. The lattice water molecules involved in OH···O hydrogen bonding are situated in the void spaces between layers. The zigzag chains, which run along the b-axes further construct three-dimensional metal-organic framework via hydrogen bonding and weak face-to-face π-π interactions. Weak CH···O interactions are also present.     

Clustering of nucleosides in the presence of alkali metals: Biologically relevant quartets of guanosine,deoxyguanosine and uridine observed by ESI-MS/MS

Electrospray ionization (ESI) mass spectra of nucleosides, recorded in the presence of alkali metals, display alkali metal ion-bound quartets and other clusters that may have implications for understanding non-covalent interactions in DNA and RNA. The tetramers of guanosine and deoxyguanosine and also their metaclusters (clusters of clusters), cationized by alkali metals, were observed as unusually abundant magic number clusters. The observation of these species in the gas phase parallels previous condensed-phase studies, which show that guanine derivatives can form quartets and metaclusters of quartets in solution in the presence of metal cations. This parallel behavior and also internal evidence suggest that bonding in the guanosine tetramers involves the bases rather than the sugar units. The nucleobases thymine and uracil are known to form magic number pentameric adducts with K+, Cs+ and NH4+ in the gas phase. In sharp contrast, we now show that the nucleosides uridine and deoxythymidine do not form the pentameric clusters characteristic of the corresponding bases. More subtle effects of the sugars are evident in the fact that adenosine and cytidine form numerous higher order clusters with alkali metals, whereas deoxyadenosine and deoxycytidine show no clustering. It is suggested that hydrogen bonding between the bases in the tetramers of dG and rG are the dominant interactions in the clusters, hence changing the ribose group to deoxyribose (and vice versa) generally has little effect. However, the additional hydroxyl group of RNA nucleosides enhances the non-selective formation of higher-order aggregates for adenosine and cytidine and results in the lack of highly stable magic number clusters. Some clusters are the result of aggregation in the course of ionization (ESI) whereas others appear to be intrinsic to the solution being examined.     

Profiling fatty acids in vegetable oils by reactive pyrolysis-gas chromatography with dimethyl carbonate and titanium silicate

A novel methodology in on-line pyrolysis-gas chromatography (Py-GC) for the fast analysis of fatty acids in vegetable oils with minimal sample treatment and the use of non-toxic reagents is described. Pyrolysis at 500 degrees C for 10 s of sub-microgram quantity of vegetable oil dissolved in dimethyl carbonate (DMC) and in the presence of nanopowder titanium silicon oxide resulted in the production of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) as unique products. Pyrolysis performed by means of a resistively heated filament pyrolyser interfaced to a GC-MS apparatus enabled the direct analysis of evolved FAMEs. The DMC/Py-GC-MS analysis was tested on soybean, coconut, linseed, walnut and olive oil and the results compared to the classical BF(3)-methanol as reference methodology. The DMC method exhibited a lower precision and was biased towards lower levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in comparison to the BF(3)-methanol method, but was more advantageous in terms of reduced sample treatment, waste generation and risk factors of employed chemicals.