Physical chemistry articles within Nature Communications

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chirality of nanostructures may be determined by ensemble measurements in solution or on single immobilized nanoparticles, with loss of detail or interference from the substrate. Here the authors demonstrate that circular differential scattering intensity spectra of freely diffusing single nanoparticles provide chiroptical spectra which reflect their intrinsic chirality.

    • Johannes Sachs
    • , Jan-Philipp Günther
    •  & Peer Fischer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The identification of molecular quantum states becomes challenging with increasing complexity of the molecular level structure. Here, the authors non-destructively identified excited molecular states of the \({{\rm{N}}}_{2}^{+}\) by interfering forces applied to both the molecular ion and to a co-trapped atomic ion.

    • Kaveh Najafian
    • , Ziv Meir
    •  & Stefan Willitsch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    MoS2 nanoparticles catalyze the extraction of heteroatom S in hydrocarbons by adsorption onto S vacancies. Here, the authors show that S vacancy properties are highly site sensitive and that adsorption of thiophene leads to self-generation of a more open double vacancy site.

    • Norberto Salazar
    • , Srinivas Rangarajan
    •  & Jeppe V. Lauritsen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photoreceptor UVR8 in plants senses environmental UV levels through 26 structural tryptophan residues, but the role of 18 of them was unknown. The authors show, by experiments and computations, how these form a light-harvesting network that funnels the excitation to the pyramid centers enhancing the light-perception efficiency.

    • Xiankun Li
    • , Haisheng Ren
    •  & Dongping Zhong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Protein structural dynamics can be studied by time-resolved crystallography (TRC) and ultrafast transient spectroscopic methods. Here, the authors perform electronic and vibrational transient absorption measurements to characterise the full photocycle of Photoactive Yellow Protein (PYP) both in the crystalline and solution state and find that the photocycle kinetics and structural intermediates of PYP deviate in the crystalline state, which must be taken into consideration when planning TRC experiments.

    • Patrick E. Konold
    • , Enis Arik
    •  & Marie Louise Groot

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The change from low-spin hexacoordinated to high-spin pentacoordinated domed form in heam upon ligand detachment and the reverse process underlie the respiratory function. The authors, using femtosecond time-resolved X-ray emission spectroscopy, capture the transient states connecting the two forms in myoglobin-NO upon NO photoinduced detachment.

    • Dominik Kinschel
    • , Camila Bacellar
    •  & Majed Chergui

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Precise control over the energy of atomic metal sites is key to unlocking novel reaction pathways. Here, the authors achieve selective oxygen activation by the isolated copper site on ceria, due to its reduced 3d orbital energy via cerium induced electron withdrawing effect.

    • Liqun Kang
    • , Bolun Wang
    •  & Feng Ryan Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The synthesis of hydrocarbons with attractive electronic structures remains challenging. Here, the authors describe the synthesis and properties of the C70 fragment as-indaceno[3,2,1,8,7,6-ghijklm]terrylene, which exhibits near-infrared (NIR) absorption.

    • Yuki Tanaka
    • , Norihito Fukui
    •  & Hiroshi Shinokubo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electron affinity (EA) is a key parameter in determining the chemical behavior of the elements, but challenging to measure for unstable atoms. Here the authors succeed in measuring the EA of astatine, the heaviest naturally occurring halogen, and compare it with predictions from relativistic calculations.

    • David Leimbach
    • , Julia Karls
    •  & Sebastian Rothe

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Formation of peptide bonds in cold gas-phase environments might represent a prebiotic synthesis route of polypeptides. Here, the authors show the formation of up to tetra-peptide species in the collision of He2+ ions, with kinetic energies typical for solar wind ions, with cold β-alanine clusters.

    • Patrick Rousseau
    • , Dariusz G. Piekarski
    •  & Bernd A. Huber

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Zeolites have pore structures that are attractive for shape-selective catalysis and separation, but targeted synthesis is challenging. Here, the authors propose using a 3D-3D topotactic transformation to synthesize targeted zeolites, including some that may be not feasible with conventional methods.

    • Zhehao Huang
    • , Seungwan Seo
    •  & Xiaodong Zou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Imaging zeolites in catalysis relies on the use of probe molecules or model catalysts. Here the authors show the synergy of a multiscale reaction-diffusion model and structured illumination microscopy to illustrate spatiotemporal evolution of molecules and acid sites in SAPO-34 zeolites in methanol-to-olefins reaction.

    • Mingbin Gao
    • , Hua Li
    •  & Zhongmin Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The geometric phase effect associated with a conical intersection between the ground and first excited electronic state has been predicted in the H3 system below the conical intersection energy. The authors, by a crossed molecular beam technique and quantum dynamic calculations, provide experimental evidence and insight into its origin.

    • Daofu Yuan
    • , Yin Huang
    •  & Xueming Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The mechanisms of formation of the (6-4) photoproducts in DNA damage by sunlight is still debated. Here the authors show, by optical spectroscopies and computations, the details of the formation of a (6-4) photoadduct via the thietane intermediate in a single-stranded DNA oligonucleotide.

    • Luis A. Ortiz-Rodríguez
    • , Christian Reichardt
    •  & Carlos E. Crespo-Hernández

  • Article
    | Open Access

    γ-Al2O3 is widely used in catalytic processes, but understanding its detailed structure remains a challenge. The authors, using two-dimensional solid-state NMR spectroscopy at a high magnetic field, characterize the spatial proximity and connectivity between oxygen species from the bulk to the surface.

    • Qiang Wang
    • , Wenzheng Li
    •  & Feng Deng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How a catalyst behaves microscopically under reaction conditions, and what kinds of active sites transiently exist on its surface, is still very much a mystery to the scientific community. Here the authors report on in situ observation of a redox active copper catalyst by a combination of in situ imaging and spectroscopy tools.

    • Jing Cao
    • , Ali Rinaldi
    •  & Marc Willinger

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Current models of halogen bonding describe the σ-symmetric component of this interaction but do not contemplate the possibility of π-covalency. Here the authors provide experimental and computational evidence of π-covalency in halogen bonds involving radical cation halogen bond donors.

    • Cameron W. Kellett
    • , Pierre Kennepohl
    •  & Curtis P. Berlinguette

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Analysis of exchange processes is time consuming by two-dimensional exchange NMR spectroscopy. Here the authors demonstrate a single-scan ultrafast Laplace NMR approach based on spatial encoding to measure molecular diffusion, with an increase by a factor six in the sensitivity per unit time.

    • Otto Mankinen
    • , Vladimir V. Zhivonitko
    •  & Ville-Veikko Telkki

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A fundamental and predictive understanding of molecule-surface interactions is challenging to obtain. Here the authors report an experimental technique allowing direct measurement of the scattering matrix, which reports on the coherent evolution of quantum states of a molecule scattering from a surface.

    • Yosef Alkoby
    • , Helen Chadwick
    •  & Gil Alexandrowicz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There are multiple ways by which energy and charge transfer occur in weakly bound systems. Here the authors reveal a heavy ion N+ transfer in a doubly charged Van der Waals cluster produced in collisions of the highly charged Ne8+ ion with N2Ar, leading to fragmentation of N+ and NAr+ via Coulomb explosion.

    • XiaoLong Zhu
    • , XiaoQing Hu
    •  & X. Ma

  • Article
    | Open Access

    While infrared nanospectroscopy methods based on thermomechanical detection (AFM-IR) enables the acquisition of absorption spectra at the nanoscale, single molecule detection has not been possible so far. Here, the authors present off-resonance, low power and short pulse infrared nanospectroscopy (ORS-nanoIR), which allows measuring infrared absorption spectra at the single molecule level in a time scale of seconds with high throughput and demonstrate that the secondary structure of single protein molecules can be determined with this method.

    • Francesco Simone Ruggeri
    • , Benedetta Mannini
    •  & Tuomas P. J. Knowles

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Excited-state structural and electronic changes, observed in molecules, are hampered in nanomaterials. Here the authors identify structural distortion and electron redistribution in three photoexcited gold nanoclusters, connecting molecular and nanocrystal regimes, enabled by flexibility of the tetrahedral core units.

    • Qi Li
    • , Dongming Zhou
    •  & Rongchao Jin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Resolving concerted nuclear and electronic motion in real-time is a primary goal in chemistry. The authors monitor nuclear and valence electronic dynamics in the excited state single-bond isomerisation of a chromophore of photoactive yellow protein, using time-resolved photoelectron imaging and electronic structure calculations.

    • Cate S. Anstöter
    • , Basile F. E. Curchod
    •  & Jan R. R. Verlet

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Borospherenes are the boron-based analogs of fullerene cages. Here, the authors report a class of Ln3B18– metallo-borospherenes with unusual spherical trihedron geometry, in which the lanthanide atoms surprisingly form a part of the cage surface.

    • Teng-Teng Chen
    • , Wan-Lu Li
    •  & Lai-Sheng Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) is a leading technique in biosensing. Here the authors identify an ECL generation mechanism near the electrode surface, which they exploit in combination with the use of branched amine coreactants to improve the ECL signal beyond the state-of-the-art immunoassays.

    • Alessandra Zanut
    • , Andrea Fiorani
    •  & Francesco Paolucci

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Autonomous control of liquid motion is vital to the development of new actuators and pumps in fluid systems but autonomous control of fluid motion is inaccessible in current systems. Here, the authors identify unique features of a photochromic molecular switch that enables its use for self-regulating light activated control of fluid flow.

    • Serena Seshadri
    • , Luke F. Gockowski
    •  & Megan T. Valentine

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Interaction of strong laser fields with matter provides powerful tools to image transient dynamics with high spatiotemporal resolution. The authors investigate strong-field ionisation of laser-aligned molecules showing the effect of molecular alignment on the photoelectron dynamics and the resulting influence of the molecular frame in imaging experiments.

    • Andrea Trabattoni
    • , Joss Wiese
    •  & Jochen Küpper

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In spite of numerous works, the nature of high activity of Cu/ZnO catalyst in methanol synthesis remains the subject of intensive debate. Here, the authors study the carbon dioxide hydrogenation mechanism using high-pressure operando techniques which allow them to unify different, seemingly contradicting, models.

    • Maxim Zabilskiy
    • , Vitaly L. Sushkevich
    •  & Jeroen A. van Bokhoven

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bond dissociation enthalpies are key quantities in determining chemical reactivity, their computations with quantum mechanical methods being highly demanding. Here the authors develop a machine learning approach to calculate accurate dissociation enthalpies for organic molecules with sub-second computational cost.

    • Peter C. St. John
    • , Yanfei Guan
    •  & Robert S. Paton

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Reactions induced by low-energy electrons in hydrated systems are central to radiation therapy, but a full understanding of their mechanism is lacking. Here the authors investigate the electron-impact induced ionization and subsequent dissociation of tetrahydrofuran, model for biochemically relevant systems, in a micro-solvated environment.

    • Enliang Wang
    • , Xueguang Ren
    •  & Alexander Dorn

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Diatomic carbon (C2) is historically an elusive chemical species, considered to require high physical energy for its generation. Here, the authors describe the first room-temperature chemical synthesis of C2 and present experimental evidence for its singlet biradical (quadruple bonding) character and role as a molecular element of nanocarbons.

    • Kazunori Miyamoto
    • , Shodai Narita
    •  & Masanobu Uchiyama

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photoabsorption is a fundamental process that leads to changes in the electron density in matter. Here, the authors show a direct measurement of the distribution of electron density when a cyclohexadine molecule is excited by pulsed UV radiation and probed by a time delayed X-ray pulse generated at LCLS.

    • Haiwang Yong
    • , Nikola Zotev
    •  & Peter M. Weber

  • Article
    | Open Access

    OLED materials based on thermally activated delayed fluorescence have promising efficiency. Here, the authors investigate an organometallic multicore Cu complex as luminophore, by pump-probe X-ray techniques at three different facilities deriving a complete picture of the charge transfer in the triplet excited state.

    • Grigory Smolentsev
    • , Christopher J. Milne
    •  & Matthias Vogt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) is a topic which is currently widely studied, but a study on the correlation between types of molecular solid and RTP properties is lacking. Here the authors show that RTP is enhanced in the racemic form of axial chiral molecules due to its denser R- and S- cross packing arrangement.

    • Xiugang Wu
    • , Chun-Ying Huang
    •  & Pi-Tai Chou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Visualising single-molecule reactions, to understand their mechanisms, is a challenging task. Here, the authors investigate disulfide exchange reactions with thiolates immobilised on a gold nanoparticle through a label-free optoplasmonic sensor, and detect individual disulfide interactions in solution

    • Serge Vincent
    • , Sivaraman Subramanian
    •  & Frank Vollmer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Symmetric multibranched donor-acceptor molecules are promising photoactive materials for diverse applications. Here the authors show that, in octupolar and quadrupolar dyes, excited-state symmetry breaking occurs efficiently in polar solvents only and results in a concentration of the excitation that may trigger fast photochemical reactions.

    • Bogdan Dereka
    • , Denis Svechkarev
    •  & Eric Vauthey

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Functionalizing two-dimensional (2D) hybrid perovskites with organic chromophores is a novel approach to tune their optoelectronic properties. Here, the authors report efficient charge separation and conduction in 2D hybrid perovskite nanoplatelets by incorporating an electron acceptor chromophore.

    • María C. Gélvez-Rueda
    • , Magnus B. Fridriksson
    •  & Ferdinand C. Grozema

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Precision-spectroscopy techniques can accurately measure lines in constrained frequency and intensity ranges. The authors propose a spectroscopic-network-assisted precision spectroscopy method by which transitions measured in a narrow range provide information in other, extended regions of the spectrum.

    • Roland Tóbiás
    • , Tibor Furtenbacher
    •  & Wim Ubachs

Browse broader subjects

Browse narrower subjects

Browse Physical chemistry across other nature.com journals