Spectroscopic link between adsorption site occupation and local surface chemical reactivity.
In this Letter we show that sequences of adsorbate-induced shifts of surface core level (SCL) x-ray photoelectron spectra contain profound information on surface changes of electronic structure and reactivity. Energy shifts and intensity changes of time-lapsed spectral components follow simple rules, from which adsorption sites are directly determined. Theoretical calculations rationalize the results for transition metal surfaces in terms of the energy shift of the d-band center of mass and this proves that adsorbate-induced SCL shifts provide a spectroscopic measure of local surface reactivity.
Stability, structure, and electronic properties of chemisorbed oxygen and thin surface oxides on Ir(111)
We present ab initio calculations for atomic oxygen adsorption on Ir111 for a wide range of oxygen coverages, , namely from 0.11 to 2.0 monolayers ML, including subsurface adsorption and thin surfaceoxide-like structures. For on-surface adsorption, oxygen prefers the fcc-hollow site for all coverages considered. Similarly to oxygen adsorption on other transition metal surfaces, as increases from 0.25 ML to 1.0 ML, the binding energy decreases, indicating a repulsive interaction between the adsorbates. For the coverage range of 0.11 to 0.25 ML, there is an attractive interaction, suggesting the possible formation of a local 22 periodicity with a local coverage of =0.25 ML. Pure subsurface oxygen adsorption is found to be metastable and endothermic with respect to the free O2 molecule. For structures with coverage beyond one full ML, we find the incorporation of oxygen under the first Ir layer to be exothermic. As the subsurface O coverage increases in these structures from 0.5 to 1.0 ML, the energy becomes slightly more favorable, indicating an attractive interaction between the O atoms. The structure with the strongest average O binding energy is however a reconstructed trilayer-like structure that can be described as a 33R30° oxide-like layer in p22 surface unit cell, with coverage 1.5 ML. Through calculation of the surface Gibbs free energy of adsorption, taking into account the pressure and temperature dependence through the oxygen atom chemical potential, the calculations predict only three thermodynamically stable regions, namely, the clean surface, the p22-O phase, and bulk IrO2. Thin trilayer surface oxide structures are predicted only to form when kinetic hindering occurs, in agreement with recent experimental work.
Subnanosecond motions of tryptophan residues in proteins.
The dynamics of protein molecules in the subnanosecond and nanosecond time range were investigated by time-resolved fluorescence polarization spectroscopy. Synchrotron radiation from a storage ring was used as a pulsed light source to excite the single tryptophan residue in a series of proteins. The full width at half maximum of the detected light pulse was 0.65 nsec, making it feasible to measure emission anisotropy kinetics in the subnanosecond time range and thereby to resolve internal rotational motions. The proteins investigated exhibit different degrees of rotational freedom of their tryptophan residue, ranging from almost no mobility to nearly complete freedom in the subnanosecond time range. The tryptophan residue of Staphylococcus aureus nuclease B (20,000 daltons) has a single rotational correlation time (varphi) of 9.9 nsec at 20 degrees C, corresponding to a rotation of the whole protein molecule. By contrast, bovine basic A1 myelin protein (18,000 daltons) exhibits varphi of 0.09 and 1.26 nsec, showing that the tryptophan residue in this protein is highly flexible. The single tryptophan of human serum albumin (69,000 daltons) has almost no rotational freedom at 8 degrees C (varphi = 31.4 nsec), whereas at 43 degrees C it rotates rapidly (varphi(1) = 0.14 nsec) within a cone of semiangle 26 degrees in addition to rotating together with the whole protein (varphi(2) = 14 nsec). Of particular interest in the large angular range (semiangle, 34 degrees ) and fast rate (varphi(1) = 0.51 nsec) of the rotational motion of the tryptophan residue in Pseudomonas aeruginosa azurin (14,000 daltons). This residue is known to be located in the hydrophobic interior of the protein. The observed amplitudes and rates of these internal motions of tryptophan residues suggest that elementary steps in functionally significant conformational changes may take place in the subnanosecond time range.