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Catching proteins in liquid helium droplets.

Frauke Bierau¹, Peter Kupser, Gerard Meijer

¹Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Berlin, Germany.

Physical Review Letters

|January 15, 2011

Summary

This study demonstrates doping liquid helium droplets with large ions like amino acids and proteins. The resulting droplet sizes, measured by electrostatic deflection, were significantly large, ranging up to 10¹² helium atoms.

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Area of Science:

Atomic and Molecular Physics
Physical Chemistry
Mass Spectrometry

Background:

Liquid helium droplets are a unique medium for studying molecular properties.
Doping helium droplets with ions allows for unique experimental investigations.
Previous methods had limitations in incorporating large ions.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop an experimental method for incorporating large mass-to-charge ratio selected ions into liquid helium droplets.
To demonstrate efficient doping with amino acids and proteins.
To characterize the size of the resulting ion-doped droplets.

Main Methods:

Mass-to-charge ratio selection of ions (amino acid and cytochrome C).
Incorporation of selected ions into liquid helium droplets.

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Size determination of ion-doped droplets using electrostatic deflection.

Main Results:

Efficient doping of helium droplets with protonated phenylalanine and cytochrome C (m ≈ 12,000 amu) was achieved.
Ion-doped droplet sizes were determined to be very large, ranging from 10¹⁰ to 10¹² helium atoms.
A model correlating pickup efficiency with droplet size and internal energy was proposed.

Conclusions:

The presented experimental approach enables the incorporation of large ions into liquid helium droplets.
The significant size of the resulting droplets offers new possibilities for ion-molecule interactions studies.
The findings provide insights into the pickup dynamics within helium droplets.