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Yucknovsky A, Rich BB, Gutkin S, Ramanthrikkovil Variyam A, Shabat D, Pokroy B, Amdursky N. Application of Super Photoacids in Controlling Dynamic Processes: Light-Triggering the Self-Propulsion of Oil Droplets. J Phys Chem B 2022; 126:6331-6337. [PMID: 35959566 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.2c04020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
The dynamic control of pH-responsive systems is at the heart of many natural and artificial processes. Here, we use photoacids, molecules that dissociate only in their excited state and transfer their proton to nearby proton acceptors, for the dynamic control of processes. A problem arises when there is a need to protonate highly acidic acceptors. We solve this problem using super photoacids that have an excited-state pKa of -8, thus enabling them to protonate very weak proton acceptors. The process that we target is the light-triggered self-propulsion of droplets, initiated by an excited-state proton transfer (ESPT) from a super photoacid donor to a surfactant acceptor situated on the surface of the droplet with a pKa of ∼0. We first confirm using steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopy that a super photoacid can undergo ESPT to the acidic surfactant, whereas a "regular" photoacid cannot. Next, we show self-propulsion of the droplet upon irradiating the solvated super photoacid. We further confirm the protonation of the surfactant on the surface of the droplet using transient surface tension measurements. Our system is the first example of the application of super photoacids to control dynamic processes and opens new possibilities in the field of light-triggered dynamic systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Yucknovsky
- Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, Technion─Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3200003, Israel
| | - Benjamin B Rich
- Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Technion─Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3200003, Israel
| | - Sara Gutkin
- School of Chemistry, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
| | | | - Doron Shabat
- School of Chemistry, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
| | - Boaz Pokroy
- Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Technion─Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3200003, Israel
| | - Nadav Amdursky
- Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, Technion─Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3200003, Israel
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Bin Mohd Yusof MS, Song H, Debnath T, Lowe B, Yang M, Loh ZH. Ultrafast proton transfer of the aqueous phenol radical cation. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2022; 24:12236-12248. [PMID: 35579397 DOI: 10.1039/d2cp00505k] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Proton transfer (PT) reactions are fundamental to numerous chemical and biological processes. While sub-picosecond PT involving electronically excited states has been extensively studied, little is known about ultrafast PT triggered by photoionization. Here, we employ femtosecond optical pump-probe spectroscopy and quantum dynamics calculations to investigate the ultrafast proton transfer dynamics of the aqueous phenol radical cation (PhOH˙+). Analysis of the vibrational wave packet dynamics reveals unusually short dephasing times of 0.18 ± 0.02 ps and 0.16 ± 0.02 ps for the PhOH˙+ O-H wag and bend frequencies, respectively, suggestive of ultrafast PT occurring on the ∼0.1 ps timescale. The reduced potential energy surface obtained from ab initio calculations shows that PT is barrierless when it is coupled to the intermolecular hindered translation between PhOH˙+ and the proton-acceptor water molecule. Quantum dynamics calculations yield a lifetime of 193 fs for PhOH˙+, in good agreement with the experimental results and consistent with the PT reaction being mediated by the intermolecular O⋯O stretch. These results suggest that photoionization can be harnessed to produce photoacids that undergo ultrafast PT. In addition, they also show that PT can serve as an ultrafast deactivation channel for limiting the oxidative damage potential of radical cations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Muhammad Shafiq Bin Mohd Yusof
- Division of Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 21 Nanyang Link, Singapore 637371, Singapore.
| | - Hongwei Song
- State Key Laboratory for Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China
| | - Tushar Debnath
- Division of Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 21 Nanyang Link, Singapore 637371, Singapore.
| | - Bethany Lowe
- Division of Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 21 Nanyang Link, Singapore 637371, Singapore.
| | - Minghui Yang
- State Key Laboratory for Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China.,Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430071, China
| | - Zhi-Heng Loh
- Division of Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 21 Nanyang Link, Singapore 637371, Singapore.
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