Photoisomerization action spectroscopy: flicking the protonated merocyanine-spiropyran switch in the gas phase

PB Markworth; BD Adamson; NJA Coughlan; L Goerigk; EJ Bieske

Journal article

Photoisomerization action spectroscopy: flicking the protonated merocyanine-spiropyran switch in the gas phase

PB Markworth, BD Adamson, NJA Coughlan, L Goerigk, EJ Bieske

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics | Published : 2015

DOI: 10.1039/c5cp01567g

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Abstract

Laser spectroscopy and ion mobility spectrometry are combined to provide structural and photochemical information on photoisomerizing molecules in the gas phase. The strategy exploits the fact that an ion packet propelled through buffer gas by an electric field separates spatially and temporally into its constituent isomers because of small differences in their collision cross sections. Isomers selected by an electrostatic ion gate are exposed to wavelength tunable radiation, promoting formation of photoisomers that are separated in a second ion mobility stage. The approach is demonstrated for protonated merocyanine and spiropyran isomers formed through electrospray ionization. Four isomers ..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Lars Goerigk Author

Evan Bieske Author

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Funding Acknowledgements

This research was supported under the Australian Research Council's Discovery Project funding scheme (Project Numbers DP110100312 and DP120100100). LG is the recipient of an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (Project Number DE140100550). LG also acknowledges funding from the Selby Scientific Foundation through the 2014 Selby Research Award and generous allocation of computing time from the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) National Facility within the National Computational Merit Allocation Scheme (Project fk5). We thank Professor Matthew Bush for providing a modified version of the MOBCAL code with N<INF>2</INF> collision parameters described in ref. 25.