• Medientyp: E-Artikel
  • Titel: Efficient Deactivation of a Model Base Pair via Excited-State Hydrogen Transfer
  • Beteiligte: Schultz, Thomas; Samoylova, Elena; Radloff, Wolfgang; Hertel, Ingolf V.; Sobolewski, Andrzej L.; Domcke, Wolfgang
  • Erschienen: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2004
  • Erschienen in: Science, 306 (2004) 5702, Seite 1765-1768
  • Sprache: Englisch
  • DOI: 10.1126/science.1104038
  • ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
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  • Beschreibung: We present experimental and theoretical evidence for an excited-state deactivation mechanism specific to hydrogen-bonded aromatic dimers, which may account, in part, for the photostability of the Watson-Crick base pairs in DNA. Femtosecond time-resolved mass spectroscopy of 2-aminopyridine clusters reveals an excited-state lifetime of 65 ± 10 picoseconds for the near-planar hydrogen-bonded dimer, which is significantly shorter than the lifetime of either the monomer or the 3- and 4-membered nonplanar clusters. Ab initio calculations of reaction pathways and potential-energy profiles identify the mechanism of the enhanced excited-state decay of the dimer: Conical intersections connect the locally excited 1 ππ* state and the electronic ground state with a 1 ππ* charge-transfer state that is strongly stabilized by the transfer of a proton.