Spectroscopy and dynamics of the hydrated electron at the water/air interface

The hydrated electron, e–(aq), has attracted much attention as a central species in radiation chemistry. However, much less is known about e–(aq) at the water/air surface, despite its fundamental role in electron transfer processes at interfaces. Using time-resolved electronic sum-frequency generation spectroscopy, the electronic spectrum of e–(aq) at the water/air interface and its dynamics are measured here, following photo-oxidation of the phenoxide anion. The spectral maximum agrees with that for bulk e–(aq) and shows that the orbital density resides predominantly within the aqueous phase, in agreement with supporting calculations. In contrast, the chemistry of the interfacial hydrated electron differs from that in bulk water, with e–(aq) diffusing into the bulk and leaving the phenoxyl radical at the surface. Our work resolves long-standing questions about e–(aq) at the water/air interface and highlights its potential role in chemistry at the ubiquitous aqueous interface

Validity of mobile electronic data capture in clinical studies: a pilot study in a pediatric population.

BACKGROUND: Clinical studies in children are necessary yet conducting multiple visits at study centers remains challenging. The success of "care-at-home" initiatives and remote clinical trials suggests their potential to facilitate conduct of pediatric studies. This pilot aimed to study the feasibility of remotely collecting valid (i.e. complete and correct) saliva samples and clinical data utilizing mobile technology. METHODS: Single-center, prospective pilot study in children undergoing elective tonsillectomy at the University of Basel Children's Hospital. Data on pain scores and concomitant medication and saliva samples were collected by caregivers on two to four inpatient study days and on three consecutive study days at home. A tailored mobile application developed for this study supported data collection. The primary endpoint was the proportion of complete and correct caregiver-collected data (pain scale) and saliva samples in the at-home setting. Secondary endpoints included the proportion of complete and correct saliva samples in the inpatient setting, subjective feasibility for caregivers, and study cost. RESULTS: A total number of 23 children were included in the study of which 17 children, median age 6.0 years (IQR 5.0, 7.4), completed the study. During the at-home phase, 71.9% [CI = 64.4, 78.6] of all caregiver-collected pain assessments and 53.9% [CI = 44.2, 63.4] of all saliva samples were complete and correct. Overall, 64.7% [CI = 58.7, 70.4] of all data collected by caregivers at home was complete and correct. The predominant reason for incorrectness of data was adherence to the timing of predefined patient actions. Participating caregivers reported high levels of satisfaction and willingness to participate in similar trials in the future. Study costs for a potential sample size of 100 patients were calculated to be 20% lower for the at-home than for a traditional in-patient study setting. CONCLUSIONS: Mobile device supported studies conducted at home may provide a cost-effective approach to facilitate conduct of clinical studies in children. Given findings in this pilot study, data collection at home may focus on electronic data capture rather than biological sampling

Software for the frontiers of quantum chemistry:An overview of developments in the Q-Chem 5 package

This article summarizes technical advances contained in the fifth major release of the Q-Chem quantum chemistry program package, covering developments since 2015. A comprehensive library of exchange–correlation functionals, along with a suite of correlated many-body methods, continues to be a hallmark of the Q-Chem software. The many-body methods include novel variants of both coupled-cluster and configuration-interaction approaches along with methods based on the algebraic diagrammatic construction and variational reduced density-matrix methods. Methods highlighted in Q-Chem 5 include a suite of tools for modeling core-level spectroscopy, methods for describing metastable resonances, methods for computing vibronic spectra, the nuclear–electronic orbital method, and several different energy decomposition analysis techniques. High-performance capabilities including multithreaded parallelism and support for calculations on graphics processing units are described. Q-Chem boasts a community of well over 100 active academic developers, and the continuing evolution of the software is supported by an “open teamware” model and an increasingly modular design

The Hydrated Electron at the Surface of Neat Liquid Water Appears To Be Indistinguishable from the Bulk Species

Experiments have suggested that the aqueous electron, e^–(aq), may play a significant role in the radiation chemistry of DNA. A recent measurement of the energy (below vacuum level) of the putative “interfacial” hydrated electron at the water/vacuum interface, performed using liquid microjet photoelectron spectroscopy, has been interpreted to suggest that aqueous electrons at the water/biomolecule interface may possess the appropriate energetics to induce DNA strand breaks, whereas e^–(aq) in bulk water lies too far below the vacuum level to induce such reactions. Other such experiments, however, find no evidence of a long-lived feature at low binding energy. We employ a variety of computational strategies to demonstrate that the energetics of the hydrated electron at the surface of neat liquid water are not significantly different from those of e^–(aq) in bulk water and as such are incompatible with dissociative electron attachment reactions in DNA. We furthermore suggest that no stable interfacial species may exist at all, consistent with the interpretation of certain surface-sensitive spectroscopy measurements, and that even if a short-lived, metastable species does exist at the vacuum/water interface, it would be extremely difficult to distinguish, experimentally, from e^–(aq) in bulk water, using either optical absorption or photoelectron spectroscopy

Optical Spectroscopy of the Bulk and Interfacial Hydrated Electron from Ab Initio Calculations

The optical spectrum of the hydrated (aqueous) electron, e_aq^–, is the primary observable by means of which this species is detected, monitored, and studied. In theoretical calculations, this spectrum has most often been simulated using one-electron models. Here, we present ab initio simulations of that spectrum in both bulk water and, for the first time, at the water/vapor interface, using density functional theory and its time-dependent variant. Our results indicate that this approach provides a reliable description, and quantitative agreement with the experimental spectrum for the bulk species is obtained using a “tuned” long-range corrected functional. The spectrum of the interfacial electron is found to be very similar to the bulk spectrum

Software for the frontiers of quantum chemistry: An overview of developments in the Q-Chem 5 package

This article summarizes technical advances contained in the fifth major release of the Q-Chem quantum chemistry program package, covering developments since 2015. A comprehensive library of exchange–correlation functionals, along with a suite of correlated many-body methods, continues to be a hallmark of the Q-Chem software. The many-body methods include novel variants of both coupled-cluster and configuration-interaction approaches along with methods based on the algebraic diagrammatic construction and variational reduced density-matrix methods. Methods highlighted in Q-Chem 5 include a suite of tools for modeling core-level spectroscopy, methods for describing metastable resonances, methods for computing vibronic spectra, the nuclear–electronic orbital method, and several different energy decomposition analysis techniques. High-performance capabilities including multithreaded parallelism and support for calculations on graphics processing units are described. Q-Chem boasts a community of well over 100 active academic developers, and the continuing evolution of the software is supported by an “open teamware” model and an increasingly modular design