Chemically selective imaging of overlapping C-H stretching vibrations with time-resolved coherent anti-stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy.

Chemically selective imaging of spectrally overlapping compounds is studied with a time-resolved, femtosecond approach on coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy taking advantage of time-dependent oscillating CARS amplitude which is sensitive to different chemical components at different time points. Chemically selective imaging is demonstrated for composite material of polypropylene (PP) matrix and om-POSS (octamethyl polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane) microparticles having partly overlapping CH stretching vibrations. Inverse Fourier transformation (IFT) was applied to Raman spectra of PP and om-POSS, indicating that the oscillatory structures of the vibrational decays differ markedly and allow selective imaging, with minimally using one time point per spatial point, which is also confirmed by the CARS measurements. CARS decays measured additionally for lipid films of cholesterol and DOPC (1,2-dioleyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine) indicate selective detection of cholesterol at a specific probe delay time. The results of this study show that the tr-CARS technique has potential for chemically selective, nonresonant background free imaging using overlapping vibrations.

Site-specific targeting of enterovirus capsid by functionalized monodisperse gold nanoclusters.

Development of precise protocols for accurate site-specific conjugation of monodisperse inorganic nanoparticles to biological material is one of the challenges in contemporary bionanoscience and nanomedicine. We report here a successful site-specific covalent conjugation of functionalized atomically monodisperse gold clusters with 1.5-nm metal cores to viral surfaces. Water-soluble Au102(para-mercaptobenzoic acid)44 clusters, functionalized by maleimide linkers to target cysteines of viral capsid proteins, were synthesized and conjugated to enteroviruses echovirus 1 and coxsackievirus B3. Quantitative analysis of transmission electron microscopy images and the known virus structures showed high affinity and mutual ordering of the bound gold clusters on the viral surface and a clear correlation between the clusters and the targeted cysteine sites close to the viral surface. Infectivity of the viruses was not compromised by loading of several tens of gold clusters per virus. These advances allow for future investigations of the structure-function relations of enteroviruses and enterovirus-related virus-like particles, including their entry mechanisms into cells and uncoating in cellular endosomes.

Raman spectroscopy and crystal-field split rotational states of photoproducts CO and H2 after dissociation of formaldehyde in solid argon.

Raman signal is monitored after 248 nm photodissociation of formaldehyde in solid Ar at temperatures of 9-30 K. Rotational transitions J = 2 ← 0 for para-H(2) fragments and J = 3 ← 1 for ortho-H(2) are observed as sharp peaks at 347.2 cm(-1) and 578.3 cm(-1), respectively, which both are accompanied by a broader shoulder band that shows a split structure. The rovibrational spectrum of CO fragments has transitions at 2136.5 cm(-1), 2138.3 cm(-1), 2139.9 cm(-1), and 2149 cm(-1). To explain the observations, we performed adiabatic rotational potential calculations to simulate the Raman spectrum. The simulations indicate that the splitting of rotational transitions is a site effect, where H(2) molecules can reside in a substitution site, in addition to an interstitial site. In the former site, rotational motion is unperturbed by the electrostatic field of the host atoms, while the latter site splits the excited rotational manifolds, J = 2 and 3, into doublet and triplet structures, respectively. For CO, the spectrum can be ascribed to monomeric species in single- and double-substitution sites, to a dimeric species (CO)(2), and to a CO-H(2)O complex. The simulations show that a nearest-neighbor molecular complex CO-H(2) is not responsible for any of the observed spectral fingerprints. The cause of the exit of the molecular hydrogen from the initial cage can be traced to high translational energy of the fragment after the photodissociation. After the matrix has reached a thermal equilibrium, a diffusion driven formation of the complex is possibly hindered by the high rotational zero-point energy developed upon complexation.

Characterization of iron-carbonyl-protected gold clusters.

Ligand-stabilized nanometer-sized gold particles are interesting building blocks for molecular electronics, precursors for catalysts, optical labels for biomolecules and diagnosis, and potential nontoxic carriers for therapeutics. In this work we characterize for the first time, by means of near-infrared and Raman spectroscopy and time-dependent density functional calculations, gold clusters protected with iron-carbonyl ligands, such as {Au(22)[Fe(CO)(4)](12)}(6-) shown in the figure. Surprisingly, our results show that these novel compounds bear many analogues to another, well-studied, class of gold clusters, namely those of thiolate-monolayer-protected gold clusters. Our work adds a new dimension to the rich chemistry of gold-based clusters that can be characterized as "molecular metals".

Iodine-benzene complex as a candidate for a real-time control of a bimolecular reaction. Spectroscopic studies of the properties of the 1:1 complex isolated in solid krypton.

The properties of the 1:1 iodine-benzene complex isolated in a solid Kr matrix at low temperatures have been studied using UV-vis absorption, FTIR, resonance Raman, and femtosecond coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy (fs-CARS). The use of all these techniques on similar samples provides a wide view on the spectroscopic properties of the complex and allows comparison and combination of the results from different methods. The results for the complex cover its structure, the changes in the iodine molecule's vibrational frequencies and electronic absorption spectrum upon complexation, and the dynamics of the complexed I(2) molecule on both ground and excited electronic states. In addition, polarization beats between uncomplexed benzene and iodine molecules are detected in the fs-CARS spectra, showing an amplification of an electronically nonresonant CARS signal by the resonant iodine signal. The possibility of controlling the charge-transfer reaction of the I(2)-Bz complex using the excitation of a well-defined ground-state vibrational wavepacket, according to the Tannor-Rice-Kosloff scheme, is discussed on the basis of the experimental findings.

Vibrational characterization of the 1:1 iodine-benzene complex isolated in solid krypton.

The structure and properties of a 1:1 iodine-benzene complex isolated in an inert krypton matrix at low temperature have been studied with infrared and resonance Raman spectroscopy and with MP2 calculations. The structure of the ground-state complex is found to be unsymmetric, and the I-I vibrational frequency is found to be red-shifted by 3.94 cm(-1) upon complexation. The experimental data agree well with computational results, leading to the conclusion that the I2-Bz complex structure is not axial but of above-bond type, identically with other halogen-benzene complexes.