Conformation specific spectroscopy in the complexity gap: β-peptides and flexible bichromophores

Esteban Edwin Baquero, Purdue University

Abstract

Flexible biomolecules with many degrees of freedom have the ability to sample a great number of structural minima. The intrinsic structural preferences of these molecules are driven by stabilizations due to intramolecular interactions such as hydrogen bonding and interatomic attractive forces. These interactions become increasingly important as the atoms in the molecule come in close proximity to one another. The present work describes the conformational preferences of several model bio-relevant molecules of different sizes where different kinds of intramolecular interactions can occur. Conformation specific ultraviolet and infrared spectroscopies were utilized to obtain the spectroscopic signatures of different conformations of the jet cooled biomolecules. These experiments allowed for the assignment of conformational families and the development of a general protocol to identify the infrared signatures of amide NH stretches, which were found to vary in frequency due to their immediate chemical and structural environment. Specific examples of systems studied include molecules containing unnatural polypeptide chains and a flexible bichromophore. The unnatural polypetides (Ac-β3-hPhe-NHMe, Ac-β 3-hTyr-NHMe Ac-β3-hPhe-β3-hAla-NHMe and Ac-β3-hAla-β3-hPhe-NHMe) were found to have a rich conformational potential energy landscape that contained many kinds of intramolecular hydrogen bonded minima. The flexible bichromophore (HNBPA), containing two spectroscopically distinguishable chromophores (Phenol and Phenyl), was found to be an interesting case study for conformational specific electronic energy transfer and testing how well different theoretical methods manage non-covalent interactions, such as those between side-chain atoms and aromatic π-clouds.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Zwier, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Physical chemistry|Molecular physics

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