Molecular motion probes

Molecular motion probes local rotational motion, conformation changes,... 

Many of the fiindamental physical and chemical processes at surfaces and interfaces occur on extremely fast time scales. For example, atomic and molecular motions take place on time scales as short as 100 fs, while surface electronic states may have lifetimes as short as 10 fs. With the dramatic recent advances in laser tecluiology, however, such time scales have become increasingly accessible. Surface nonlinear optics provides an attractive approach to capture such events directly in the time domain. Some examples of application of the method include probing the dynamics of melting on the time scale of phonon vibrations [82], photoisomerization of molecules [88], molecular dynamics of adsorbates [89, 90], interfacial solvent dynamics [91], transient band-flattening in semiconductors [92] and laser-induced desorption [93]. A review article discussing such time-resolved studies in metals can be found in... 

The dramatic slowing down of molecular motions is seen explicitly in a vast area of different probes of liquid local structures. Slow motion is evident in viscosity, dielectric relaxation, frequency-dependent ionic conductance, and in the speed of crystallization itself. In all cases, the temperature dependence of the generic relaxation time obeys to a reasonable, but not perfect, approximation the empirical Vogel-Fulcher law ... 

To determine molecular motions in real time necessitates the application of a time-ordered sequence of (at least) two ultrafast laser pulses to a molecular sample the first pulse provides the starting trigger to initiate a particular process, the break-up of a molecule, for example whilst the second pulse, time-delayed with respect to the first, probes the molecular evolution as a function of time. For isolated molecules in the gas phase, this approach was pioneered by the 1999 Nobel Laureate, A. H. Zewail of the California Institute of Technology. The nature of what is involved is most readily appreciated through an application, illustrated here for the photofragmentation of iodine bromide (IBr). 

One further point needs to be mentioned when probing the feasibility of a particular experiment. Apart from its dependence on temperature and concentration (for instance of ions, solutes, impurities, isotopes), relaxation times - in particular the longitudinal relaxation time Tj - depend on the field strength. This can be understood from the concept that energy exchange is most efficient if the timescale of molecular motion is equal to the Larmor frequency. Often, molecular motion takes place over a wide range of frequencies, so that the func-... 

The relevant contribute of relaxation measurements on the use of NMR spectroscopy in studying interactions can be argued by considering the relationship between relaxation rates and spectral density function being the latter related to the correlation time, which accounts for the molecular motion. Therefore, spin-lattice and spin-spin can be used to probe interactions between, in principle, every species bearing an active NMR nucleus. 

The physical properties of probe molecules adsorbed in the confined space of porous materials are known to vary in dependence of structural constraints on molecular motion. Detailed investigations of adsorption geometries are possible, when well-defined sites and loadings exist. This was the case for the adsorption of strongly interacting probe molecules, such as pyridine, on SiOH groups in the... 

There has been extensive effort in recent years to use coordinated experimental and simulation studies of polymer melts to better understand the connection between polymer motion and conformational dynamics. Although no experimental method directly measures conformational dynamics, several experimental probes of molecular motion are spatially local or are sensitive to local motions in polymers. Coordinated simulation and experimental studies of local motion in polymers have been conducted for dielectric relaxation,152-158 dynamic neutron scattering,157,159-164 and NMR spin-lattice relaxation.17,152,165-168 A particularly important outcome of these studies is the improved understanding of the relationship between the probed motions of the polymer chains and the underlying conformational dynamics that leads to observed motions. In the following discussion, we will focus on the... 

Unlike imino nitrogen, protonated carbon nuclei are abundant throughout the molecules of nucleic acids providing many sites as possible probes into the molecular motions. How-... 

M. Vincent, J. Gallay, J. de Bony, and J.-F. Tocanne, Steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence anisotropy study of phospholipid molecular motion in the gel phase using l-palmitoyl-2-[9-(2-anthryl)-nonanoyl]-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine as probe, Ear, J. Biochem. 250, 341-347 (1985). 

The above experimental results largely relate to spectroscopic techniques, which do not give direct information about the spatial scale of the molecular motions. The size of the spatial heterogeneities is estimated by indirect methods such as sensitivity of the dynamics to the probe size or from the differences between translational and rotational diffusion coefficients (rotation-translation paradox). It might be expected that the additional spatial information provided by neutron scattering could help to discriminate between the two scenarios proposed. 

NMR is the most fundamental molecular specific probe of diffusion. Polymer motions and the spectroscopic signature of a given nucleus can be unambiguously related to a particular morphological domain. The size and time scale of the experiments are such that the fundamental hopping events of diffusing molecules can be sampled. 

A. A. Jones, Clark University, Mass. Could you summarize briefly those conditions under which rotating frame relaxation provides a good probe of molecular motion in the solid state Is this something that can be achieved with a good spectrometer and a rf large rf field ... 

Of the thermodynamic quantities just mentioned, only the determination of the expansion coefficient or other quantities reflecting its change have assumed practical importance for the identification of secondary transitions in glassy polymers. The most efficient methods for the investigation of the dynamics and intensity of molecular motions have so far been those based on the interference between molecular motion and the oscillating magnetic, electric or mechanical force field. In recent years, methods which employ various probes or labels in the study of molecular mobility have increasingly been used. 

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