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Updated: Mar 24, 2026

Atomic Scale Structural Studies of Macromolecular Assemblies by Solid-state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
Published on: September 17, 2017
Nuclear spatial delocalization silences electron density oscillations in 2-phenyl-ethyl-amine (PEA) and
Andrew J Jenkins1, Morgane Vacher1, Michael J Bearpark1
1Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
We simulate electron dynamics following ionization in 2-phenyl-ethyl-amine and 2-phenylethyl-N,N-dimethylamine as examples of systems where 3 coupled cationic states are involved. We study two nuclear effects on electron dynamics: (i) coupled electron-nuclear motion and (ii) nuclear spatial delocalization as a result of the zero-point energy in the neutral molecule. Within the Ehrenfest approximation, our calculations show that the coherent electron dynamics in these molecules is not lost as a result of coupled electron-nuclear motion. In contrast, as a result of nuclear spatial delocalization, dephasing of the oscillations occurs on a time scale of only a few fs, long before any significant nuclear motion can occur. The results have been rationalized using a semi-quantitative model based upon the gradients of the potential energy surfaces.
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