TY  - JOUR
U1  - Zeitschriftenartikel, wissenschaftlich - begutachtet (reviewed)
A1  - Brecht, Marc
A1  - Liu, Quan
A1  - Wang, Liangxuan
A1  - Roldao, Juan Carlos
A1  - Adam, Pierre-Michel
A1  - Gierschner, Johannes
A1  - Wackenhut, Frank
A1  - Meixner, Alfred
T1  - Theoretical and experimental evidence of two-step tautomerization in hypericin
JF  - Advanced photonics research
N2  - Hypericin has large potential in modern medicine and exhibits fascinating structural dynamics, such as multiple conformations and tautomerization. However, it is difficult to study individual conformers/tautomers, as they cannot be isolated due to the similarity of their chemical and physical properties. An approach to overcome this difficulty is to combine single molecule experiments with theoretical studies. Time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) calculations reveal that tautomerization of hypericin occurs via a two-step proton transfer with an energy barrier of 1.63 eV, whereas a direct single-step pathway has a large activation energy barrier of 2.42 eV. Tautomerization in hypericin is accompanied by reorientation of the transition dipole moment, which can be directly observed by fluorescence intensity fluctuations. Quantitative tautomerization residence times can be obtained from the autocorrelation of the temporal emission behavior revealing that hypericin stays in the same tautomeric state for several seconds, which can be influenced by the embedding matrix. Furthermore, replacing hydrogen with deuterium further proves that the underlying process is based on tunneling of a proton. In addition, the tautomerization rate can be influenced by a λ/2 Fabry–Pérot microcavity, where the occupation of Raman active vibrations can alter the tunneling rate.
Y1  - 2021
UN  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:rt2-opus4-32964
SN  - 2699-9293
SS  - 2699-9293
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1002/adpr.202000170
DO  - https://doi.org/10.1002/adpr.202000170
VL  - 2
IS  - 6
SP  - 9
S1  - 9
PB  - Wiley
CY  - Weinheim
ER  -