0000000000065982
AUTHOR
Vicenta Sauri
Tuning the photophysical properties of anti-B18H22: efficient intersystem crossing between excited singlet and triplet states in new 4,4'-(HS)2-anti-B18H20.
The tuning of the photophysical properties of the highly fluorescent boron hydride cluster anti-B18H22 (1), by straightforward chemical substitution to produce 4,4'-(HS)2-anti-B18H20 (2), facilitates intersystem crossing from excited singlet states to a triplet manifold. This subsequently enhances O2((1)Δg) singlet oxygen production from a quantum yield of ΦΔ ∼ 0.008 in 1 to 0.59 in 2. This paper describes the synthesis and full structural characterization of the new compound 4,4'-(HS)2-anti-B18H20 (2) and uses UV-vis spectroscopy coupled with density functional theory (DFT) and ab initio computational studies to delineate and explain its photophysical properties.
On the Deactivation Mechanisms of Adenine–Thymine Base Pair
In this contribution, the multiconfigurational second-order perturbation theory method based on a complete active space reference wave function (CASSCF/CASPT2) is applied to study all possible single and double proton/hydrogen transfers between the nucleobases in the adenine-thymine (AT) base pair, analyzing the role of excited states with different nature [localized (LE) and charge transfer (CT)], and considering concerted as well as step-wise mechanisms. According to the findings, once the lowest excited states, localized in adenine, are populated during UV irradiation of the Watson-Crick base pair, the proton transfer in the N-O bridge does not require high energy in order to populate a …
Proton/Hydrogen Transfer Mechanisms in the Guanine–Cytosine Base Pair: Photostability and Tautomerism
Proton/hydrogen-transfer processes have been broadly studied in the past 50 years to explain the photostability and the spontaneous tautomerism in the DNA base pairs. In the present study, the CASSCF/CASPT2 methodology is used to map the two-dimensional potential energy surfaces along the stretched NH reaction coordinates of the guanine–cytosine (GC) base pair. Concerted and stepwise pathways are explored initially in vacuo, and three mechanisms are studied: the stepwise double proton transfer, the stepwise double hydrogen transfer, and the concerted double proton transfer. The results are consistent with previous findings related to the photostability of the GC base pair, and a new contrib…
Distinct Photophysics of the Isomers of B18H22 Explained
The photophysics of the two isomers of octadecaborane(22), anti- and syn-B 18H 22, have been studied by UV-vis spectroscopic techniques and theoretical computational methods. In air-saturated hexane, anti-B 18H 22 shows fluorescence with a high quantum yield, Φ F = 0.97, and singlet oxygen O 2( 1Δ g) production (Φ Δ ∼ 0.008). Conversely, isomer syn-B 18H 22 shows no measurable fluorescence, instead displaying much faster, picosecond nonradiative decay of excited singlet states. Computed potential energy hypersurfaces (PEHs) for both isomers rationalize these data, pointing to a deep S 1 minimum for anti-B 18H 22 and a conical intersection (CI) between its S 0 and S 1 states that lies 0.51 e…