The spectroscopy and photo-induced dissociation of flavin mononucleotide anions in vacuo are investigated over the 300-500 nm wavelength range. Comparison of the dependence of fragment ion yields as a function of deposited photon energy with calculated dissociation energies and collision-induced dissociation measurements performed under single-collision conditions suggests that a substantial fraction of photo-activated ions decompose through non-statistical fragmentation pathways. Among these pathways is the dominant photo-induced fragmentation channel, the loss of a fragment identified as formylmethylflavin. The fragment ion specific action spectra reveal electronic transition energies close to those for flavins in solution and previously published gas-phase measurements, although the photo-fragment yield upon excitation of the S-2 <- S-0 transition appears to be suppressed.

In this thesis, I report experiments probing collision- and photon-induced molecular dynamics in the gas phase. Excited molecules formed in such interactions may relax by emitting electrons or photons, isomerization or fragmentation. For complex molecular systems, these processes typically occur on timescales exceeding picoseconds following statistical redistribution of the excitation energy across the internal degrees of freedom. However, energy transfer to molecules through ion/atom impact may in some cases lead to prompt atom knockout in Rutherford-type scattering processes on much faster timescales. Another example of such a non-statistical process is photon-induced excited-state proton transfer, a structural rearrangement occurring on the femtosecond timescale.

In this work, I investigate the competition between statistical and non-statistical fragmentation processes for a range of molecules colliding with He at center-of-mass energies in the sub-keV range. I show that heavy atom knockout is an important process for systems containing aromatic rings such as Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) or porphyrins, while statistical fragmentation processes dominate for less stable and/or smaller systems such as adenine or hydrogenated PAHs. Furthermore, I present the first measurements of the threshold energies for prompt single atom knockout from isolated molecules. The experimental results are interpreted with the aid of Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations which allow us to extract the energy deposited into the system during a collision, knockout cross sections, fragmentation pathways and the structures of the fragments. The results presented in this work may be important for understanding the response of complex molecules to energetic processes in e.g. astrophysical environments.

Furthermore, I present the results of photodissociation and luminescence experiments probing flavin mono-anions in the gas phase. These are compared against calculations and previously measured spectra in solution. The discrepancies between the present results and the theoretical values suggest that more consideration of the vibronic structure is needed to model the photoabsorption and emission in flavins. Finally, I present the results of photoisomerisation experiments of flavin di-anions where two different isomers have been found and I discuss the proton transfer mechanisms which govern the structural changes.

We have measured fragment mass spectra and total destruction cross sections for protonated and deprotonated adenine following collisions with He at center-of-mass energies in the 20-240 eV range. Classical and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations are used to provide detailed information on the fragmentation pathways and suggest a range of alternative routes compared to those reported in earlier studies. These new pathways involve, for instance, losses of HNC molecules from protonated adenine and losses of NH2 or C3H2N2 from deprotonated adenine. The present results may be important to advance the understanding of how biomolecules may be formed and processed in various astrophysical environments.

Substituted naphthalene anions (deprotonated 2-naphthol and 6-hydroxy-2-naphthoic acid) are spectroscopically probed in a tandem drift tube ion mobility spectrometer (IMS). Target anions are selected according to their drift speed through nitrogen buffer gas in the first IMS stage before being exposed to a pulse of tunable light that induces either photodissociation or electron photodetachment, which is conveniently monitored by scavenging the detached electrons with trace SF6 in the buffer gas. The photodetachment action spectrum of the 2-naphtholate anion exhibits a band system spanning 380-460 nm with a prominent series of peaks spaced by 440 cm(-1), commencing at 458.5 nm, and a set of weaker peaks near the electron detachment threshold corresponding to transitions to dipole-bound states. The two deprotomers of 6-hydroxy-2-naphthoic acid are separated and spectroscopically probed independently. The molecular anion formed from deprotonation of the hydroxy group gives rise to a photodetachment action spectrum similar to that of the 2-naphtholate anion with an onset at 470 nm and a maximum at 420 nm. Near the threshold, the photoreaction with SF6 is observed with displacement of an OH group by an F atom. In contrast, the anion formed from deprotonation of the carboxylic acid group gives rise to a photodissociation action spectrum, recorded on the CO2 loss channel, lying at much shorter wavelengths with an onset at 360 nm and maximum photoresponse at 325 nm.

We report the absorption profile of isolated Flavin Adenine Dinucleotide (FAD) mono-anions recorded using photo-induced dissociation action spectroscopy. In this charge state, one of the phosphoric acid groups is deprotonated and the chromophore itself is in its neutral oxidized state. These measurements cover the first four optical transitions of FAD with excitation energies from 2.3 to 6.0 eV (210-550 nm). The S-0 -> S-2 transition is strongly blue shifted relative to aqueous solution, supporting the view that this transition has a significant charge-transfer character. The remaining bands are close to their solution-phase positions. This confirms that the large discrepancy between quantum chemical calculations of vertical transition energies and solution-phase band maxima cannot be explained by solvent effects. We also report the luminescence spectrum of FAD mono-anions in vacuo. The gas-phase Stokes shift for S-1 is 3000 cm(-1), which is considerably larger than any previously reported for other molecular ions and consistent with a significant displacement of the ground and excited state potential energy surfaces. Consideration of the vibronic structure is thus essential for simulating the absorption and luminescence spectra of flavins.

In this paper, we give a detailed description of an electrospray ion source test bench and a single-pass setup for ion fragmentation studies at the Double ElectroStatic Ion Ring ExpEriment infrastructure at Stockholm University. This arrangement allows for collision-induced dissociation experiments at the center-of-mass energies between 10 eV and 1 keV. Charged fragments are analyzed with respect to their kinetic energies (masses) by means of an electrostatic energy analyzer with a wide angular acceptance and adjustable energy resolution.

The intrinsic optical properties and photochemistry of flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) dianions are investigated using a combination of tandem ion mobility spectrometry and action spectroscopy. Two principal isomers are observed, the more stable form being deprotonated on the isoalloxazine group and a phosphate (N-3,PO4 deprotomer), and the other on the two phosphates (PO4,PO4 deprotomer). Ion mobility data and electronic action spectra suggest that photo-induced proton transfer occurs from the isoalloxazine group to a phosphate group, converting the PO4,PO4 deprotomer to the N-3,PO4 deprotomer. Comparisons of the isomer selective action spectra of FAD dianions and flavin monoanions with solution spectra and gas-phase photodissociation action spectra suggests that solvation shifts the electronic absorption of the deprotonated isoalloxazine group to higher energy. This is interpreted as evidence for significant charge transfer in the lowest optical transition of deprotonated isoalloxazine. Overall, this work demonstrates that the site of deprotonation of flavin anions strongly affects their electronic absorptions and photochemistry.

This licentiate thesis covers results from collision induced dissociation (CID) experiments of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), hydrogentated PAHs (HPAHs) and porphyrins. PAHs and HPAHs are believed to play key roles in the evolution of complex molecules in space, while porphyrins are essential for various functions in living organisms. The experiments were carried out in the Electrospray Ion Source Laboratory (EIS-LAB) at the Double ElectroStatic Ion-Ring ExpEriment (DESIREE) infrastructure, Stockholm University.  In these studies, molecular ions collide with neutral targets at center-of-mass energies from a few tens to a few hundreds of eV. In this energy regime, fragmentation is mainly driven by nuclear scattering processes (nuclear stopping) rather than by interactions with the molecular electronic clouds (electronic stopping). Thus, knockout of single heavy atoms from the molecule in prompt billiard-ball type collision processes may occur in competition with statistical fragmentation processes in which the excitation energy is redistributed across all degrees of freedom before the decay. In this thesis, we have investigated the importance of knockout driven fragmentation processes in a series of experiments with markedly different molecular structures ranging from pure sp²-hybridized to pure sp³-hybridized systems. The experiments are interpreted in view of molecular structure and molecular dynamics simulations. These studies show that knockout processes are important for any molecular system, but they are in general difficult to isolate by means of mass spectrometric techniques. We have seen clear fingerprints of single carbon-atom loss in the collision experiments for PAHs and porphyrins. In contrast, in the case of the hydrogenated PAHs the fragmentation is dominated by the statistical loss of single carbon atoms due to their lower dissociation energy. We further report the threshold displacement energy for PAH, hydrogenated PAHs and porphyrin molecules--the key intrinsic property determining the cross section for prompt atom knockout.

We have studied collisions between tetraphenylporphyrin cations and He or Ne at center-of-mass energies in the range 50-110 eV. The experimental results were interpreted in view of density functional theory calculations of dissociation energies and classical molecular dynamics simulations of how the molecules respond to the He/Ne impact. We demonstrate that prompt atom knockout strongly contributes to the total destruction cross sections. Such impulse driven processes typically yield highly reactive fragments and are expected to be important for collisions with any molecular system in this collision energy range, but have earlier been very difficult to isolate for biomolecules.

An ongoing discussion revolves around the question of what effect hydrogenation has oncarbon backbone fragmentation in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In order to shedmore light on this issue, we have measured absolute single carbon loss cross sections incollisions between native or hydrogenated pyrene cations (C16H+ 10+m , m = 0, 6, 16) and He as functions of center-of-massenergies down to 20 eV. Classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations give further insightinto energy transfer processes and also yield m-dependent threshold energies for prompt(femtoseconds) carbon knockout. Such fast, non-statistical fragmentation processesdominate CH x -loss for native pyrene (m = 0), while much slowerstatistical fragmentation processes contribute significantly to single-carbon loss for thehydrogenated molecules (m =6 and m =16). The latter is shown by measurements of large CH x -loss crosssections far below the MD knockout thresholds for C16H+ 16 and C16H+ 26.