Charge loss in gas-phase multiply negatively charged oligonucleotides

In an attempt to shed light on the mechanism by which gaseous samples of negatively charged oligonucleotides undergo extremely slow (i.e., over 1-1000 s) charge loss, we have carried out molecular dynamics simulations on an oligonucleotide anion, T(5)(3-), containing five thymine, deoxyribose, and phosphate units in which the first, third, and fifth phosphates are negatively charged. The study is aimed at determining the rate at which an electron is detached from such a trianion by way of an internal Coulomb repulsion induced event. In this process, the intrinsic 5.0-5.1 eV electron binding strength of each phosphate site is reduced by the repulsive Coulomb potentials of the other two negative sites. As geometrical fluctuations cause the distances among the three negative phosphate sites to change, this causes the Coulomb repulsion energies at these sites to fluctuate. Once the Coulomb potential at any phosphate site exceeds ca. 5 eV, the electron on that site is able to undergo autodetachment. Although such an electron must tunnel through a barrier to escape, it is shown that the tunneling rate is not the rate-limiting step in electron loss; instead, it is the rate at which geometrical fluctuations cause the Coulomb potentials to exceed 5 eV that determines the rate of electron loss. Because these rates are extremely slow, special techniques had to be introduced to allow results of dynamics simulations on more flexible models of T(5)(3-) to be extrapolated to predict the behavior of the actual T(5)(3-).