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We present experimental and simulated 2D IR spectra of some high-pressure forms of isotope-pure D2O ice and compare the results to those of ice Ih published previously [F. Perakis and P. Hamm, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 14, 6250 (2012); L. Shi et al., ibid. 18, 3772 (2016)]. Ice II, ice V, and ice XIII have been chosen for this study, since this selection covers many aspects of the polymorphism of ice. That is, ice II is a hydrogen-ordered phase of ice, in contrast to ice Ih, while ice V and ice XIII are a hydrogen-disordered/ordered couple that shares essentially the same oxygen structure and hydrogenbonded network. For the transmission 2D IR spectroscopy, a novel method had to be developed for the preparation of ultrathin films (1-2 μm) of high-pressure ices with good optical quality. We also simulated 2D IR spectra based on molecular dynamics simulations connected to a vibrational exciton picture. These simulations agree with the experimental results in a semi-quantitative manner for ice II, while the same approach failed for ice V and ice XIII. From the perspective of 2D IR spectroscopy, ice II appears to be more inhomogeneously broadened than ice Ih, despite its hydrogen-order, which we attribute to the fact that ice II is structurally more complex with four distinguishable hydrogen bonds that mix due to exciton coupling. Ice V and ice XIII, on the other hand, behave as expected with the hydrogen-disordered case (ice V) being more inhomogenously broadened. Furthermore, in all hydrogen-ordered forms (ice II and ice XIII), cross peaks could be identified in the anisotropic 2D IR spectrum, whose signs reveal the relative direction of the corresponding excitonic states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have investigated the site-specific folding kinetics of a photo-switchable cross-linked [alpha]-helical peptide by using single [sup.13]C = [sup.18]O isotope labeling together with time-resolved IR spectroscopy. We observe that the folding times differ from site to site by a factor of eight at low temperatures (6[degrees]C), whereas at high temperatures (45[degrees]C), the spread is considerably smaller. The trivial sum of the site signals coincides with the overall folding signal of the unlabeled peptide, and different sites fold in a noncooperative manner. Moreover, one of the sites exhibits a decrease of hydrogen bonding upon folding, implying that the unfolded state at low temperature is not unstructured. Molecular dynamics simulations at low temperature reveal a stretched-exponential behavior which originates from parallel folding routes that start from a kinetically partitioned unfolded ensemble. Different metastable structures (i.e., traps) in the unfolded ensemble have a different ratio of loop and helical content. Control simulations of the peptide at high temperature, as well as without the cross-linker at low temperature, show faster and simpler (i.e., single-exponential) folding kinetics. The experimental and simulation results together provide strong evidence that the rate-limiting step in formation of a structurally constrained [alpha]-helix is the escape from heterogeneous traps rather than the nucleation rate. This conclusion has important implications for an [alpha]-helical segment within a protein, rather than an isolated [alpha]-helix, because the cross-linker is a structural constraint similar to those present during the folding of a globular protein. cooperativity | infrared spectroscopy | molecular dynamics simulation | peptide folding

Two photocleavable disulfide-bridged tetrapeptides [cyclo(Boc-Cys-Pro-Aib-Cys-OMe) and cyclo(Boc-Cys-Pro-Phe-Cys-OMe)] which provide insight into cyclic peptide dynamics are reported.

Author(s): Christoph Kolano (corresponding author) [1]; Jan Helbing [1]; Mariusz Kozinski [1]; Wolfram Sander [2]; Peter Hamm (corresponding author) [1] X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance measurements provide us with [...]

Nuclear quantum effects in liquid water have profound implications for several of its macroscopic properties related to the structure, dynamics, spectroscopy, and transport. Although several of water's macroscopic properties can be reproduced by classical descriptions of the nuclei using interaction potentials effectively parameterized for a narrow range of its phase diagram, a proper account of the nuclear quantum effects is required to ensure that the underlying molecular interactions are transferable across a wide temperature range covering different regions of that diagram. When performing an analysis of the hydrogen-bonded structural networks in liquid water resulting from the classical (class) and quantum (qm) descriptions of the nuclei with two interaction potentials that are at the two opposite ends of the range in describing quantum effects, namely the flexible, pair-wise additive q-TIP4P/F, and the flexible, polarizable TTM3-F, we found that the (class) and (qm) results can be superimposed over the temperature range T = 250-350 K using a surprisingly simple, linear scaling of the two temperatures according to T(qm) = α T(class) + ΔT, where α = 0.99 and ΔT = -6 K for q-TIP4P/F and α = 1.24 and ΔT = -64 K for TTM3-F. This simple relationship suggests that the structural networks resulting from the quantum and classical treatment of the nuclei with those two very different interaction potentials are essentially similar to each other over this extended temperature range once a model-dependent linear temperature scaling lawis applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, various spectroscopic techniques have been developed, which can measure the 2D response of the inter-molecular degrees of freedom of liquids in the THz regime. By employing hybrid Raman-THz pulse sequences, the inherent experimental problems of 2D-Raman spectroscopy are circumvented completely, culminating in the recent measurement of the 2D-Raman-THz responses of water and aqueous salt solutions. This review article focuses on the possibility to observe echoes in such experiments, which would directly reveal the inhomogeneity of the typically extremely blurred THz bands of liquids, and hence the heterogeneity of local structures that are transiently formed, in particular, in a hydrogen-bonding liquid such as water. The generation mechanisms of echoes in 2D-Raman-THz spectroscopy are explained, which differ from those in "conventional" 2D-IR spectroscopy in a subtle but important manner. Subsequently, the circumstances are discussed, under which echoes are expected, revealing a physical picture of the information content of an echo. That is, the echo decay reflects the lifetime of local structures in the liquid on a length scale that equals the delocalization length of the intermolecular modes. Finally, recent experimental results are reviewed from an echo perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the help of a Markov State Model (MSM), two-state behaviour is resolved for two computer models of water in a temperature range from 255 K to room temperature (295 K). The method is first validated for ST2 water, for which the so far strongest evidence for a liquid-liquid phase transition exists. In that case, the results from the MSM can be cross-checked against the radial distribution function g5(r) of the 5th-closest water molecule around a given reference water molecule. The latter is a commonly used local order parameter, which exhibits a bimodal distribution just above the liquid-liquid critical point that represents the low-density form of the liquid (LDL) and the high density liquid. The correlation times and correlation lengths of the corresponding spatial domains are calculated and it is shown that they are connected via a simple diffusion model. Once the approach is established, TIP4P/2005 will be considered, which is the much more realistic representation of real water. The MSM can resolve two-state behavior also in that case, albeit with significantly smaller correlation times and lengths. The population of LDL-like water increases with decreasing temperature, thereby explaining the density maximum at 4 °C along the lines of the two-state model of water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photo-triggered [alpha]-helix formation of a 16-residue peptide featuring a built-in conformational photoswitch is monitored by time-resolved IR spectroscopy. An experimental approach with 2-ps time resolution and a scanning range up to 30 [micro]s is used to cover all time scales of the peptide dynamics. Experiments are carried out at different temperatures between 281 and 322 K. We observe single-exponential kinetics of the amide l' band at 322 K on a time scale comparable to a recent temperature-jump folding experiment. When lowering the temperature, the kinetics become slower and nonexponential. The transition is strongly activated. Spectrally dispersed IR measurements provide multiple spectroscopic probes simultaneously in one experiment by resolving the amide l' band, isotope-labeled amino acid residues, and side chains. We find differing relaxation dynamics at different spectral positions. [alpha]-helix folding | femtosecond IR spectroscopy | protein folding

Observation of coherent vibrational dynamics in a hydrogen bond obtained by femtosecond nonlinear measurements in mid-infrared spectral range is reported. The result provide experimental evidence in the time domain for the anharmonic coupling of slow and fast vibrational motions in hydrogen bond.

Stimulated photon echo experiments were used to study the amide I band region of globular peptides, apamin and a cyclic pentapeptide.

Based on extensive ab initio calculations and the time-propagation of the nuclear Schrödinger equation, we study the vibrational relaxation dynamics and resulting spectral signatures of the OH stretch vibration of a hydrogen-bonded complex, HCO2- · H2O. Despite their smallness, it has been shown experimentally by Johnson and coworkers that the gas-phase infrared spectra of these types of complexes exhibit much of the complexity commonly observed for hydrogen-bonded systems. That is, the OH stretch band exhibits a significant red shift together with an extreme broadening and a pronounced substructure, which reflects its very strong anharmonicity. Employing an adiabatic separation of time scales between the three intramolecular high-frequency modes of the water molecule and the three most important intermolecular low-frequency modes of the complex, we calculate potential energy surfaces (PESs) of the ground and the first excited states of the high-frequency modes and identify a vibrational conical intersection between the PESs of the OH stretch fundamental and the HOH bend overtone. By performing a time-dependent propagation of the resulting system, we show that the conical intersection affects a coherent population transfer between the two states, the first step of which being ultrafast (60 fs) and irreversible. The subsequent relaxation of vibrational energy into the HOH bend and ground state occurs incoherently but also quite fast (1 ps), although the corresponding PESs are well separated in energy. Owing to the smaller effective mass difference between light and heavy degrees of freedom, the adiabatic ansatz is consequently less significant for vibrations than in the electronic case. Based on the model, we consider several approximations to calculate the measured Ar-tag action spectrum of HCO2- · H2O and achieve semiquantitative agreement with the experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The solvent dynamics around fluorinated acetonitrile is characterized by 2-dimensional infrared spectroscopy and atomistic simulations. The lineshape of the linear infrared spectrum is better captured by semiempirical (density functional tight binding) mixed quantum mechanical/molecular mechanics simulations, whereas force field simulations with multipolar interactions yield lineshapes that are significantly too narrow. For the solvent dynamics, a relatively slow time scale of 2 ps is found from the experiments and supported by the mixed quantum mechanical/molecular mechanics simulations. With multipolar force fields fitted to the available thermodynamical data, the time scale is considerably faster--on the 0.5 ps time scale. The simulations provide evidence for a well established CF-HOH hydrogen bond (population of 25%) which is found from the radial distribution function g(r) from both, force field and quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present two-dimensional infrared (2D IR) spectra of organic monolayers immobilized on thin metallic films at the solid liquid interface. The experiments are acquired under Attenuated Total Reflectance (ATR) conditions which allow a surface-sensitive measurement of spectral diffusion, sample inhomogeneity, and vibrational relaxation of the monolayers. Terminal azide functional groups are used as local probes of the environment and structural dynamics of the samples. Specifically, we investigate the influence of different alkyl chain-lengths on the ultrafast dynamics of the monolayer, revealing a smaller initial inhomogeneity and faster spectral diffusion with increasing chain-length. Furthermore, by varying the environment (i.e., in different solvents or as bare sample), we conclude that the most significant contribution to spectral diffusion stems from intra- and intermolecular dynamics within the monolayer. The obtained results demonstrate that 2D ATR IR spectroscopy is a versatile tool for measuring interfacial dynamics of adsorbed molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By covalently binding a photoswitchable linker across the binding groove of the PDZ2 domain, a small conformational change can be photo-initiated that mimics the allosteric transition of the protein. The response of its binding groove is investigated with the help of ultrafast pump-probe IR spectroscopy from picoseconds to tens of microseconds. The temperature dependence of that response is compatible with diffusive dynamics on a rugged energy landscape without any prominent energy barrier. Furthermore, the dependence of the kinetics on the concentration of certain viscogens, sucrose, and glycerol, has been investigated. A pronounced viscosity dependence is observed that can be best fit by a power law, i.e., a fractional viscosity dependence. The change of kinetics when comparing sucrose with glycerol as viscogen, however, provides strong evidence that direct interactions of the viscogen molecule with the protein do play a role as well. This conclusion is supported by accompanying molecular dynamics simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]