Gas-Phase Formation of Large Neutral Alkaline-Earth Metal Tryptophan Complexes

Author(s)
Markus Marksteiner, Philipp Haslinger, Hendrik Ulbricht, Michele Sclafani, Harald Oberhofer, Christoph Dellago, Markus Arndt
Abstract

We report on the first observation of isolated large neutral metal amino acid complexes such as Trp n Me k , with Me = Ca, Ba, Sr, cluster combinations covering n = 1–33, k = 0..2 and masses beyond 6500 u. The cluster beam is generated using UV laser desorption from a mixed powder of alkaline-earth metal salts and tryptophan inside a cluster mixing channel. The particles are detected using VUV photoionization followed by time-of-flight mass spectroscopy. The enhanced stability of metal amino acid clusters over pure amino acid clusters is substantiated in molecular dynamics simulations by determining the gain in binding energy related to the inclusion of the metal atoms.

Organisation(s)
Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics and Quantum Information, Computational and Soft Matter Physics, Department for Teacher Education
Journal
Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry
Volume
19
Pages
1021-1026
No. of pages
6
ISSN
1044-0305
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasms.2008.04.028
Publication date
2008
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
103026 Quantum optics
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/7caed8bb-b6d3-4d58-8c49-258db44744f3