Probing ion-molecule structure and dynamics in isolated molecular clusters and proteins

Ion-molecule interactions in isolated molecular clusters and proteins are studied in this work using experimental and theoretical methods. Photodissociation spectroscopy and chemical dynamics of several metal ion-molecule clusters are studied. The experimental tool used for these studies is an Angular Reflectron Time Of Flight Mass Spectrometer (ARTOFMS). The experimental work is supported by ab initio electronic structure calculations on the Gaussian and GAMESS platforms. This work also describes a computational study of the interaction of protonated histidine with other aromatic residues in proteins.; We have studied the photodissociation spectroscopy of weakly bound Zn +(H2O) and Zn+(D2O) bimolecular complexes. We assign two molecular absorption bands in the near UV correlating to Zn+ (4s-4p)-metal centered transitions, and identify vibrational progressions associated with both intermolecular and intramolecular vibrational modes of the cluster. Partially resolved rotational structure is consistent with a C2 V equilibrium complex geometry.; The photodissociation spectroscopy and chemical dynamics of Zn +-formaldehyde and Zn+-acetaldehyde clusters are investigated in the near UV spectral range. The work is also supported by ab initio electronic structure calculations to study the ground-state bonding and interactions in the low-lying doublet excited states. We identify absorption bands corresponding to photoinduced charge transfer, Zn+(4s-4p)-based transitions, and aldehyde-based excitations. We propose a reaction mechanism for the reactive dissociation that proceeds via H-atom abstraction on the charge-transfer surface. This work shows important differences with results from earlier experiments on Mg+- and Ca+-aldehyde complexes despite the similar valence character for these metal ions.; In the study of Mg+-acetic acid we observe three distinct absorption bands, two red-shifted and one blue-shifted from the Mg +(3s ← 3p) resonance at 280 nm (35714 cm-1). We identify several distinct isomers in the (MgC2O2H4)+ cluster that can dissociate directly following internal conversion to the major observed daughter ions, Mg+, MgOH+, and Mg(H2O) +.; We have discovered new structural determinants that significantly improve pKa predictions of His residues: Cation-pi and pi-pi interactions of histidine with aromatic residues (Tyr, Trp and Phe), N-H hydrogen bonds from backbone amide groups and coupled titration effects. Cation-pi and pi-pi interactions are key contributors to the prediction of Histidine pKa values in proteins.