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Updated: May 25, 2026

Quantification of Hydrogen Concentrations in Surface and Interface Layers and Bulk Materials through Depth Profiling with Nuclear Reaction Analysis
Published on: March 29, 2016
Hydrogen bonds in the nucleobase-gold complexes: photoelectron spectroscopy and density functional calculations
Guo-Jin Cao1, Hong-Guang Xu, Ren-Zhong Li
1Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Abstract:
The nucleobase-gold complexes were studied with anion photoelectron spectroscopy and density functional calculations. The vertical detachment energies of uracil-Au(-), thymine-Au(-), cytosine-Au(-), adenine-Au(-), and guanine-Au(-) were estimated to be 3.37 ± 0.08 eV, 3.40 ± 0.08 eV, 3.23 ± 0.08 eV, 3.28 ± 0.08 eV, and 3.43 ± 0.08 eV, respectively, based on their photoelectron spectra. The combination of photoelectron spectroscopy experiments and density functional calculations reveals the presence of two or more isomers for these nucleobase-gold complexes. The major isomers detected in the experiments probably are formed by Au anion with the canonical tautomers of the nucleobases. The gold anion essentially interacts with the nucleobases through N-H···Au hydrogen bonds.
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