@article{BastianYudeGuerenuKurganovaetal.2020,
  author    = {Bastian, Philipp U. and Yu, Leixiao and de Guere{\~n}u Kurganova, Anna Lopez and Haag, Rainer and Kumke, Michael Uwe},
  title     = {Bioinspired confinement of upconversion nanoparticles for improved performance in aqueous solution},
  series = {The journal of physical chemistry : C, Nanomaterials and interfaces},
  volume    = {124},
  journal   = {The journal of physical chemistry : C, Nanomaterials and interfaces},
  number    = {52},
  publisher = {American Chemical Society},
  address   = {Washington, DC},
  issn      = {1932-7447},
  doi       = {10.1021/acs.jpcc.0c09798},
  pages     = {28623 -- 28635},
  year      = {2020},
  abstract  = {The resonance energy transfer (RET) from NaYF4:Yb,Er upconverting nanoparticles (UNCPs) to a dye (5-carboxytetramethylrhodamine (TAMRA)) was investigated by photoluminescence experiments and microscale thermophoresis (MST). The dye was excited via RET from the UCNPs which was excited in the near-infrared (NIR). The change of the dye diffusion speed (free vs coupled) was investigated by MST. RET shows significant changes in the decay times of the dye as well as of the UCNPs. MST reveals significant changes in the diffusion speed. A unique amphiphilic coating polymer (customized mussel protein (CMP) polymer) for UCNP surface coating was used, which mimics blood protein adsorption and mussel food protein adhesion to transfer the UCNP into the aqueous phase and to allow surface functionalization. The CMP provides very good water dispersibility to the UCNPs and minimizes ligand exchange and subsequent UCNP aging reactions because of the interlinkage of the CMP on the UCNP surface. Moreover, CMP provides N-3-functional groups for dick chemistry-based functionalization demonstrated with the dye 5-carboxytetramethylrhodamine (TAMRA). This establishes the principle coupling scheme for suitable biomarkers such as antibodies. The CMP provides very stable aqueous UCNP dispersions that are storable up to 3 years in a fridge at 5 degrees C without dissolution or coagulation. The outstanding properties of CMP in shielding the UCNP from unwanted solvent effects is reflected in the distinct increase of the photoluminescence decay times after UCNP functionalization. The UCNP-to-TAMRA energy transfer is also spectroscopically investigated at low temperatures (4-200 K), revealing that one of the two green Er(III) emission bands contributes the major part to the energy transfer. The TAMRA fluorescence decay time increases by a factor of 9500 from 2.28 ns up to 22 mu s due to radiationless energy transfer from the UCNP after NIR excitation of the latter. This underlines the unique properties of CMP as a versatile capping ligand for distinctly improving the UCNPs' performance in aqueous solutions, for coupling of biomolecules, and for applications for in vitro and in vivo experiments using UCNPs as optical probes in life science applications.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{BekirJelkenJungetal.2021,
  author    = {Bekir, Marek and Jelken, Joachim and Jung, Se-Hyeong and Pich, Andrij and Pacholski, Claudia and Kopyshev, Alexey and Santer, Svetlana},
  title     = {Dual responsiveness of microgels induced by single light stimulus},
  series = {Applied physics letters},
  volume    = {118},
  journal   = {Applied physics letters},
  number    = {9},
  publisher = {American Institute of Physics},
  address   = {Melville},
  issn      = {0003-6951},
  doi       = {10.1063/5.0036376},
  pages     = {6},
  year      = {2021},
  abstract  = {We report on the multiple response of microgels triggered by a single optical stimulus. Under irradiation, the volume of the microgels is reversibly switched by more than 20 times. The irradiation initiates two different processes: photo-isomerization of the photo-sensitive surfactant, which forms a complex with the anionic microgel, rendering it photo-responsive; and local heating due to a thermo-plasmonic effect within the structured gold layer on which the microgel is deposited. The photo-responsivity is related to the reversible accommodation/release of the photo-sensitive surfactant depending on its photo-isomerization state, while the thermo-sensitivity is intrinsically built in. We show that under exposure to green light, the thermo-plasmonic effect generates a local hot spot in the gold layer, resulting in the shrinkage of the microgel. This process competes with the simultaneous photo-induced swelling. Depending on the position of the laser spot, the spatiotemporal control of reversible particle shrinking/swelling with a predefined extent on a per-second base can be implemented.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{BouaklineSaalfrank2021,
  author    = {Bouakline, Foudhil and Saalfrank, Peter},
  title     = {Seemingly asymmetric atom-localized electronic densities following laser-dissociation of homonuclear diatomics},
  series = {The journal of chemical physics : bridges a gap between journals of physics and journals of chemistry},
  volume    = {154},
  journal   = {The journal of chemical physics : bridges a gap between journals of physics and journals of chemistry},
  number    = {23},
  publisher = {American Institute of Physics},
  address   = {Melville},
  issn      = {0021-9606},
  doi       = {10.1063/5.0049710},
  pages     = {10},
  year      = {2021},
  abstract  = {Recent experiments on laser-dissociation of aligned homonuclear diatomic molecules show an asymmetric forward-backward (spatial) electron-localization along the laser polarization axis. Most theoretical models attribute this asymmetry to interference effects between gerade and ungerade vibronic states. Presumably due to alignment, these models neglect molecular rotations and hence infer an asymmetric (post-dissociation) charge distribution over the two identical nuclei. In this paper, we question the equivalence that is made between spatial electron-localization, observed in experiments, and atomic electron-localization, alluded by these theoretical models. We show that (seeming) agreement between these models and experiments is due to an unfortunate omission of nuclear permutation symmetry, i.e., quantum statistics. Enforcement of the latter requires mandatory inclusion of the molecular rotational degree of freedom, even for perfectly aligned molecules. Unlike previous interpretations, we ascribe spatial electron-localization to the laser creation of a rovibronic wavepacket that involves field-free molecular eigenstates with opposite space-inversion symmetry i.e., even and odd parity. Space-inversion symmetry breaking would then lead to an asymmetric distribution of the (space-fixed) electronic density over the forward and backward hemisphere. However, owing to the simultaneous coexistence of two indistinguishable molecular orientational isomers, our analytical and computational results show that the post-dissociation electronic density along a specified space-fixed axis is equally shared between the two identical nuclei-a result that is in perfect accordance with the principle of the indistinguishability of identical particles. Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishing.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{ChemuraHaubitzPrimusetal.2020,
  author    = {Chemura, Sitshengisiwe and Haubitz, Toni and Primus, Philipp A. and Underberg, Martin and H{\"u}lser, Tim and Kumke, Michael Uwe},
  title     = {Europium-doped Ceria-Gadolinium mixed oxides},
  series = {The journal of physical chemistry : A, Molecules, spectroscopy, kinetics, environment \& general theory},
  volume    = {124},
  journal   = {The journal of physical chemistry : A, Molecules, spectroscopy, kinetics, environment \& general theory},
  number    = {24},
  publisher = {American Chemical Society},
  address   = {Washington},
  issn      = {1089-5639},
  doi       = {10.1021/acs.jpca.0c03188},
  pages     = {4972 -- 4983},
  year      = {2020},
  abstract  = {Gadolinium-doped ceria or gadolinium-stabilized ceria (GDC) is an important technical material due to its ability to conduct O2- ions, e.g., used in solid oxide fuel cells operated at intermediate temperature as an electrolyte, diffusion barrier, and electrode component. We have synthesized Ce1-xGdxO2-y:Eu3+ (0 <= x <= 0.4) nanoparticles (11-15 nm) using a scalable spray pyrolysis method, which allows the continuous large-scale technical production of such materials. Introducing Eu3+ ions in small amounts into ceria and GDC as spectroscopic probes can provide detailed information about the atomic structure and local environments and allows us to monitor small structural changes. This study presents a novel approach to structurally elucidate europium-doped Ce1-xGdxO2-y:Eu3+ nanoparticles by way of Eu3+ spectroscopy, processing the spectroscopic data with the multiway decomposition method parallel factor (PARAFAC) analysis. In order to perform the deconvolution of spectra, data sets of excitation wavelength, emission wavelength, and time are required. Room temperature, time-resolved emission spectra recorded at lambda(ex) = 464 nm show that Gd3+ doping results in significantly altered emission spectra compared to pure ceria. The PARAFAC analysis for the pure ceria samples reveals a high-symmetry species (which can also be probed directly via the CeO2 charge transfer band) and a low-symmetry species. The GDC samples yield two low-symmetry spectra in the same experiment. High-resolution emission spectra recorded under cryogenic conditions after probing the D-5(0)-F-7(0) transition at lambda(ex) = 575-583 nm revealed additional variation in the low-symmetry Eu3+ sites in pure ceria and GDC. The total luminescence spectra of CeO2-y:Eu3+ showed Eu3+ ions located in at least three slightly different coordination environments with the same fundamental symmetry, whereas the overall hypsochromic shift and increased broadening of the D-5(0)-F-7(0) excitation in the GDC samples, as well as the broadened spectra after deconvolution point to less homogeneous environments. The data of the Gd3+-containing samples indicates that the average charge density around the Eu3+ ions in the lattice is decreased with increasing Gd3+ and oxygen vacancy concentration. For reference, the Judd-Ofelt parameters of all spectra were calculated. PARAFAC proves to be a powerful tool to analyze lanthanide spectra in crystalline solid materials, which are characterized by numerous Stark transitions and where measurements usually yield a superposition of different contributions to any given spectrum.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{DoeringGrigorievTapioetal.2022,
  author    = {Doering, Ulrike and Grigoriev, Dmitry and Tapio, Kosti and Bald, Ilko and B{\"o}ker, Alexander},
  title     = {Synthesis of nanostructured protein-mineral-microcapsules by sonication},
  series = {Soft matter},
  volume    = {18},
  journal   = {Soft matter},
  number    = {13},
  publisher = {Royal Society of Chemistry},
  address   = {London},
  issn      = {1744-6848},
  doi       = {10.1039/d1sm01638e},
  pages     = {2558 -- 2568},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {We propose a simple and eco-friendly method for the formation of composite protein-mineral-microcapsules induced by ultrasound treatment. Protein- and nanoparticle-stabilized oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions loaded with different oils are prepared using high-intensity ultrasound. The formation of thin composite mineral proteinaceous shells is realized with various types of nanoparticles, which are pre-modified with Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) and subsequently characterized by EDX, TGA, zeta potential measurements and Raman spectroscopy. Cryo-SEM and EDX mapping visualizations show the homogeneous distribution of the densely packed nanoparticles in the capsule shell. In contrast to the results reported in our previous paper,(1) the shell of those nanostructured composite microcapsules is not cross-linked by the intermolecular disulfide bonds between BSA molecules. Instead, a Pickering-Emulsion formation takes place because of the amphiphilicity-driven spontaneous attachment of the BSA-modified nanoparticles at the oil/water interface. Using colloidal particles for the formation of the shell of the microcapsules, in our case silica, hydroxyapatite and calcium carbonate nanoparticles, is promising for the creation of new functional materials. The nanoparticulate building blocks of the composite shell with different chemical, physical or morphological properties can contribute to additional, sometimes even multiple, features of the resulting capsules. Microcapsules with shells of densely packed nanoparticles could find interesting applications in pharmaceutical science, cosmetics or in food technology.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{EbelBald2022,
  author    = {Ebel, Kenny and Bald, Ilko},
  title     = {Low-energy (5-20 eV) electron-induced single and double strand breaks in well-defined DNA sequences},
  series = {The journal of physical chemistry letters / American Chemical Society},
  volume    = {13},
  journal   = {The journal of physical chemistry letters / American Chemical Society},
  number    = {22},
  publisher = {American Chemical Society},
  address   = {Washington},
  issn      = {1948-7185},
  doi       = {10.1021/acs.jpclett.2c00684},
  pages     = {4871 -- 4876},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {Ionizing radiation is used in cancer radiation therapy to effectively damage the DNA of tumors. The main damage is due to generation of highly reactive secondary species such as low-energy electrons (LEEs). The accurate quantification of DNA radiation damage of well-defined DNA target sequences in terms of absolute cross sections for LEE-induced DNA strand breaks is possible by the DNA origami technique; however, to date, it is possible only for DNA single strands. In the present work DNA double strand breaks in the DNA sequence 5'-d(CAC)(4)/5'd(GTG)(4) are compared with DNA single strand breaks in the oligonucleotides 5'-d(CAC)(4) and 5'-d(GTG)(4) upon irradiation with LEEs in the energy range from 5 to 20 eV. A maximum of strand break cross section was found around 7 and 10 eV independent of the DNA sequence, indicating that dissociative electron attachment is the underlying mechanism of strand breakage and confirming previous studies using plasmid DNA.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{ErlerRiebeBeitzetal.2020,
  author    = {Erler, Alexander and Riebe, Daniel and Beitz, Toralf and L{\"o}hmannsr{\"o}ben, Hans-Gerd and Grothusheitkamp, Daniela and Kunz, Thomas and Methner, Frank-J{\"u}rgen},
  title     = {Characterization of volatile metabolites formed by molds on barley by mass and ion mobility spectrometry},
  series = {Journal of mass spectrometr},
  volume    = {55},
  journal   = {Journal of mass spectrometr},
  number    = {5},
  publisher = {Wiley},
  address   = {Hoboken},
  issn      = {1076-5174},
  doi       = {10.1002/jms.4501},
  pages     = {1 -- 10},
  year      = {2020},
  abstract  = {The contamination of barley by molds on the field or in storage leads to the spoilage of grain and the production of mycotoxins, which causes major economic losses in malting facilities and breweries. Therefore, on-site detection of hidden fungus contaminations in grain storages based on the detection of volatile marker compounds is of high interest. In this work, the volatile metabolites of 10 different fungus species are identified by gas chromatography (GC) combined with two complementary mass spectrometric methods, namely, electron impact (EI) and chemical ionization at atmospheric pressure (APCI)-mass spectrometry (MS). The APCI source utilizes soft X-radiation, which enables the selective protonation of the volatile metabolites largely without side reactions. Nearly 80 volatile or semivolatile compounds from different substance classes, namely, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, esters, substituted aromatic compounds, alkenes, terpenes, oxidized terpenes, sesquiterpenes, and oxidized sesquiterpenes, could be identified. The profiles of volatile and semivolatile metabolites of the different fungus species are characteristic of them and allow their safe differentiation. The application of the same GC parameters and APCI source allows a simple method transfer from MS to ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), which permits on-site analyses of grain stores. Characterization of IMS yields limits of detection very similar to those of APCI-MS. Accordingly, more than 90\% of the volatile metabolites found by APCI-MS were also detected in IMS. In addition to different fungus genera, different species of one fungus genus could also be differentiated by GC-IMS.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{FischerSaalfrank2021,
  author    = {Fischer, Eric W. and Saalfrank, Peter},
  title     = {Ground state properties and infrared spectra of anharmonic vibrational polaritons of small molecules in cavities},
  series = {The journal of chemical physics : bridges a gap between journals of physics and journals of chemistr},
  volume    = {154},
  journal   = {The journal of chemical physics : bridges a gap between journals of physics and journals of chemistr},
  number    = {10},
  publisher = {American Institute of Physics},
  address   = {Melville},
  issn      = {0021-9606},
  doi       = {10.1063/5.0040853},
  pages     = {18},
  year      = {2021},
  abstract  = {Recent experiments and theory suggest that ground state properties and reactivity of molecules can be modified when placed inside a nanoscale cavity, giving rise to strong coupling between vibrational modes and the quantized cavity field. This is commonly thought to be caused either by a cavity-distorted Born-Oppenheimer ground state potential or by the formation of light-matter hybrid states, vibrational polaritons. Here, we systematically study the effect of a cavity on ground state properties and infrared spectra of single molecules, considering vibration-cavity coupling strengths from zero up to the vibrational ultrastrong coupling regime. Using single-mode models for Li-H and O-H stretch modes and for the NH3 inversion mode, respectively, a single cavity mode in resonance with vibrational transitions is coupled to position-dependent molecular dipole functions. We address the influence of the cavity mode on polariton ground state energies, equilibrium bond lengths, dissociation energies, activation energies for isomerization, and on vibro-polaritonic infrared spectra. In agreement with earlier work, we observe all mentioned properties being strongly affected by the cavity, but only if the dipole self-energy contribution in the interaction Hamiltonian is neglected. When this term is included, these properties do not depend significantly on the coupling anymore. Vibro-polaritonic infrared spectra, in contrast, are always affected by the cavity mode due to the formation of excited vibrational polaritons. It is argued that the quantized nature of vibrational polaritons is key to not only interpreting molecular spectra in cavities but also understanding the experimentally observed modification of molecular reactivity in cavities.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{FischerSaalfrank2021,
  author    = {Fischer, Eric W. and Saalfrank, Peter},
  title     = {A thermofield-based multilayer multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree approach to non-adiabatic quantum dynamics at finite temperature},
  series = {The journal of chemical physics : bridges a gap between journals of physics and journals of chemistry},
  volume    = {155},
  journal   = {The journal of chemical physics : bridges a gap between journals of physics and journals of chemistry},
  number    = {13},
  publisher = {American Institute of Physics},
  address   = {Melville},
  issn      = {0021-9606},
  doi       = {10.1063/5.0064013},
  pages     = {15},
  year      = {2021},
  abstract  = {We introduce a thermofield-based formulation of the multilayer multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree (MCTDH) method to study finite temperature effects on non-adiabatic quantum dynamics from a non-stochastic, wave function perspective. Our approach is based on the formal equivalence of bosonic many-body theory at zero temperature with a doubled number of degrees of freedom and the thermal quasi-particle representation of bosonic thermofield dynamics (TFD). This equivalence allows for a transfer of bosonic many-body MCTDH as introduced by Wang and Thoss to the finite temperature framework of thermal quasi-particle TFD. As an application, we study temperature effects on the ultrafast internal conversion dynamics in pyrazine. We show that finite temperature effects can be efficiently accounted for in the construction of multilayer expansions of thermofield states in the framework presented herein. Furthermore, we find our results to agree well with existing studies on the pyrazine model based on the pMCTDH method.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{FischerWertherBouaklineetal.2020,
  author    = {Fischer, Eric W. and Werther, Michael and Bouakline, Foudhil and Saalfrank, Peter},
  title     = {A hierarchical effective mode approach to phonon-driven multilevel vibrational relaxation dynamics at surfaces},
  series = {The journal of chemical physics : bridges a gap between journals of physics and journals of chemistry},
  volume    = {153},
  journal   = {The journal of chemical physics : bridges a gap between journals of physics and journals of chemistry},
  number    = {6},
  publisher = {American Institute of Physics},
  address   = {Melville},
  issn      = {0021-9606},
  doi       = {10.1063/5.0017716},
  pages     = {15},
  year      = {2020},
  abstract  = {We discuss an efficient Hierarchical Effective Mode (HEM) representation of a high-dimensional harmonic oscillator bath, which describes phonon-driven vibrational relaxation of an adsorbate-surface system, namely, deuterium adsorbed on Si(100). Starting from the original Hamiltonian of the adsorbate-surface system, the HEM representation is constructed via iterative orthogonal transformations, which are efficiently implemented with Householder matrices. The detailed description of the HEM representation and its construction are given in the second quantization representation. The hierarchical nature of this representation allows access to the exact quantum dynamics of the adsorbate-surface system over finite time intervals, controllable via the truncation order of the hierarchy. To study the convergence properties of the effective mode representation, we solve the time-dependent Schrodinger equation of the truncated system-bath HEM Hamiltonian, with the help of the multilayer extension of the Multiconfigurational Time-Dependent Hartree (ML-MCTDH) method. The results of the HEM representation are compared with those obtained with a quantum-mechanical tier-model. The convergence of the HEM representation with respect to the truncation order of the hierarchy is discussed for different initial conditions of the adsorbate-surface system. The combination of the HEM representation with the ML-MCTDH method provides information on the time evolution of the system (adsorbate) and multiple effective modes of the bath (surface). This permits insight into mechanisms of vibration-phonon coupling of the adsorbate-surface system, as well as inter-mode couplings of the effective bath.},
  language  = {en}
}