The Vibrational Spectrum of the hydrated Alanine-Leucine Peptide in the Amide region from IR experiments and First Principles Calculation

We have combined infrared (IR) experiments with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in solution at finite temperature to analyse the vibrational signature of the small floppy peptide Alanine-Leucine. IR spectra computed from first- principles MD simulations exhibit no distinct differences between conformational clusters of alpha-helix/beta-sheet-like folds with different orientations of the bulky leucine side chain. All computed spectra show two prominent bands, in good agreement with the experiment, that are assigned to the stretch vibrations of the carbonyl and carboxyl group, respectively. Variations in band widths and exact maxima are likely due to small fluctuations in the backbone torsion angles

Energy relaxation and triplet formation

We combined femtosecond (fs) VIS pump–IR probe spectroscopy with fs VIS pump–supercontinuum probe spectroscopy to characterize the photoreaction of the hexacoordinated Al(tpfc-Br8)(py)2 in a comprehensive way. Upon fs excitation at ∼400 nm in the Soret band, the excitation energy relaxes with a time constant of (250 ± 80) fs to the S2 and S1 electronic excited states. This is evident from the rise time of the stimulated emission signal in the visible spectral range. On the same time scale, narrowing of broad infrared signals in the C=C stretching region around 1500 cm−1 is observed. Energy redistribution processes are visible in the vibrational and electronic dynamics with time constants between ∼2 ps and ∼20 ps. Triplet formation is detected with a time constant of (95 ± 3) ps. This is tracked by the complete loss of stimulated emission. Electronic transition of the emerging triplet absorption band overlaps considerably with the singlet excited stateabsorption. In contrast, two well separated vibrational marker bands for triplet formation were identified at 1477 cm−1 and at 1508 cm−1. These marker bands allow a precise identification of triplet dynamics in corrole systems

Acceleration of a ground-state reaction by selective femtosecond-infrared-laser-pulse excitation

Infrared (IR) excitation of vibrations that participate in the reaction coordinate of an otherwise thermally driven chemical reaction are believed to lead to its acceleration. Attempts at the practical realization of this concept have been hampered so far by competing processes leading to sample heating. Here we demonstrate, using femtosecond IR-pump IR-probe experiments, the acceleration of urethane and polyurethane formation due to vibrational excitation of the reactants for 1:1 mixtures of phenylisocyanate and cyclohexanol, and toluene-2,4-diisocyanate and 2,2,2-trichloroethane-1,1-diol, respectively. We measured reaction rate changes upon selective vibrational excitation with negligible heating of the sample and observed an increase of the reaction rate up to 24%. The observation is rationalized using reactant and transition-state structures obtained from quantum chemical calculations. We subsequently used IR-driven reaction acceleration to write a polyurethane square on sample windows using a femtosecond IR pulse

Ultrafast electronic and vibrational dynamics in brominated aluminum corroles: Energy relaxation and triplet formation

We combined femtosecond (fs) VIS pump–IR probe spectroscopy with fs VIS pump–supercontinuum probe spectroscopy to characterize the photoreaction of the hexacoordinated Al(tpfc-Br8)(py)2 in a comprehensive way. Upon fs excitation at ∼400 nm in the Soret band, the excitation energy relaxes with a time constant of (250 ± 80) fs to the S2 and S1 electronic excited states. This is evident from the rise time of the stimulated emission signal in the visible spectral range. On the same time scale, narrowing of broad infrared signals in the C=C stretching region around 1500 cm−1 is observed. Energy redistribution processes are visible in the vibrational and electronic dynamics with time constants between ∼2 ps and ∼20 ps. Triplet formation is detected with a time constant of (95 ± 3) ps. This is tracked by the complete loss of stimulated emission. Electronic transition of the emerging triplet absorption band overlaps considerably with the singlet excited state absorption. In contrast, two well separated vibrational marker bands for triplet formation were identified at 1477 cm−1 and at 1508 cm−1. These marker bands allow a precise identification of triplet dynamics in corrole systems

Femtosecond infrared spectroscopy of channelrhodopsin-1 chromophore isomerization

Vibrational dynamics of the retinal all-trans to 13-cis photoisomerization in channelrhodopsin-1 from Chlamydomonas augustae (CaChR1) was investigated by femtosecond visible pump mid-IR probe spectroscopy. After photoexcitation, the transient infrared absorption of C-C stretching modes was detected. The formation of the 13-cis photoproduct marker band at 1193 cm−1 was observed within the time resolution of 0.3 ps. We estimated the photoisomerization yield to (60 ± 6) %. We found additional time constants of (0.55 ± 0.05) ps and (6 ± 1) ps, assigned to cooling, and cooling processes with a back-reaction pathway. An additional bleaching band demonstrates the ground-state heterogeneity of retinal

Ultrafast electron transfer in a self-assembling sulfonated aluminum corrole–methylviologen complex

Photoinduced electron transfer systems can mimic certain features of natural photosynthetic reaction centers, which are crucial for solar energy production. Among other tetra-pyrroles, the versatile chemical and photophysical properties of corroles make them very promising donors applicable in donor–acceptor complexes. Here, we present a first comprehensive study of ultrafast photoinduced electron transfer in a self-assembling sulfonated aluminum corrole–methylviologen complex combining visible and mid-IR transient absorption spectroscopy. The noncovalent D–A association of the corrole–methylviologen complex has the great advantage that photoinduced charge separation becomes possible even though the back electron transfer (BET) rate is large. Initial forward electron transfer from corrole to methylviologen is observed on an ∼130 fs time scale. Subsequent back electron transfer takes place with τBET = (1.8 ± 0.5) ps, revealing very complex relaxation dynamics. Direct probing in the mid-IR allows us to unravel the back electron transfer and cooling dynamics/electronic reorganization. Upon tracing the dynamics of the methylviologen-radical marker band at 1640 cm–1 and the C═C stretching of corrole at around 1500 cm–1, we observe that large amounts of excess energy survive the back transfer, leading to the formation of hot ground state absorption. A closer examination of the signal after 300 ps, surviving the back transfer, exhibits a charge-separation yield of 10–15%

Reaction dynamics of the chimeric channelrhodopsin C1C2

Channelrhodopsin (ChR) is a key protein of the optogenetic toolkit. C1C2, a functional chimeric protein of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii ChR1 and ChR2, is the only ChR whose crystal structure has been solved, and thus uniquely suitable for structure-based analysis. We report C1C2 photoreaction dynamics with ultrafast transient absorption and multi-pulse spectroscopy combined with target analysis and structure-based hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics calculations. Two relaxation pathways exist on the excited (S-1) state through two conical intersections Cl-1 and Cl-2, that are reached via clockwise and counter-clockwise rotations: (i) the C13=C14 isomerization path with 450 fs via Cl-1 and (ii) a relaxation path to the initial ground state with 2.0 ps and 11 ps via Cl-2, depending on the hydrogen-bonding network, hence indicating active-site structural heterogeneity. The presence of the additional conical intersection Cl-2 rationalizes the relatively low quantum yield of photoisomerization (30 +/- 3%), reported here. Furthermore, we show the photoreaction dynamics from picoseconds to seconds, characterizing the complete photocycle of C1C2