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Crystals composed of photoreactive molecules represent a new class of photomechanical materials with the potential to generate large forces on fast timescales. An example is the photodimerization of 9- tert -butyl-anthracene ester ( 9TBAE ) in molecular crystal nanorods that leads to an average elongation of 8%. Previous work showed that this expansion results from the formation of a metastable crystalline product. In this article, it is shown how a novel combination of ensemble oriented-crystal solid-state NMR, X-ray diffraction, and first principles computational modeling can be used to establish the absolute unit cell orientations relative to the shape change, revealing the atomic-resolution mechanism for the photomechanical response and enabling the construction of a model that predicts an elongation of 7.4%, in good agreement with the experimental value. According to this model, the nanorod expansion does not result from an overall change in the volume of the unit cell, but rather from an anisotropic rearrangement of the molecular contents. The ability to understand quantitatively how molecular-level photochemistry generates mechanical displacements allows us to predict that the expansion could be tuned from +9% to -9.5% by controlling the initial orientation of the unit cell with respect to the nanorod axis. This application of NMR-assisted crystallography provides a new tool capable of tying the atomic-level structural rearrangement of the reacting molecular species to the mechanical response of a nanostructured sample., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

Carbanionic intermediates play a central role in the catalytic transformations of amino acids performed by pyridoxal-5'-phosphate (PLP)-dependent enzymes. Here, we make use of NMR crystallography-the synergistic combination of solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance, X-ray crystallography, and computational chemistry-to interrogate a carbanionic/quinonoid intermediate analogue in the β-subunit active site of the PLP-requiring enzyme tryptophan synthase. The solid-state NMR chemical shifts of the PLP pyridine ring nitrogen and additional sites, coupled with first-principles computational models, allow a detailed model of protonation states for ionizable groups on the cofactor, substrates, and nearby catalytic residues to be established. Most significantly, we find that a deprotonated pyridine nitrogen on PLP precludes formation of a true quinonoid species and that there is an equilibrium between the phenolic and protonated Schiff base tautomeric forms of this intermediate. Natural bond orbital analysis indicates that the latter builds up negative charge at the substrate C α and positive charge at C4' of the cofactor, consistent with its role as the catalytic tautomer. These findings support the hypothesis that the specificity for β-elimination/replacement versus transamination is dictated in part by the protonation states of ionizable groups on PLP and the reacting substrates and underscore the essential role that NMR crystallography can play in characterizing both chemical structure and dynamics within functioning enzyme active sites.

The performance of fragment-based ab initio(1)H, (13)C, (15)N and (17)O chemical shift predictions is assessed against experimental NMR chemical shift data in four benchmark sets of molecular crystals. Employing a variety of commonly used density functionals (PBE0, B3LYP, TPSSh, OPBE, PBE, TPSS), we explore the relative performance of cluster, two-body fragment, and combined cluster/fragment models. The hybrid density functionals (PBE0, B3LYP and TPSSh) generally out-perform their generalized gradient approximation (GGA)-based counterparts. (1)H, (13)C, (15)N, and (17)O isotropic chemical shifts can be predicted with root-mean-square errors of 0.3, 1.5, 4.2, and 9.8 ppm, respectively, using a computationally inexpensive electrostatically embedded two-body PBE0 fragment model. Oxygen chemical shieldings prove particularly sensitive to local many-body effects, and using a combined cluster/fragment model instead of the simple two-body fragment model decreases the root-mean-square errors to 7.6 ppm. These fragment-based model errors compare favorably with GIPAW PBE ones of 0.4, 2.2, 5.4, and 7.2 ppm for the same (1)H, (13)C, (15)N, and (17)O test sets. Using these benchmark calculations, a set of recommended linear regression parameters for mapping between calculated chemical shieldings and observed chemical shifts are provided and their robustness assessed using statistical cross-validation. We demonstrate the utility of these approaches and the reported scaling parameters on applications to 9-tert-butyl anthracene, several histidine co-crystals, benzoic acid and the C-nitrosoarene SnCl2(CH3)2(NODMA)2.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with cationic frameworks and mobile anions have many applications from sensing, anion exchange and separation, to fast ion conductivity. Despite recent progress, the vast majority of MOFs have neutral frameworks. A common mechanism for the formation of neutral frameworks is the attachment of anionic species such as F(-) or OH(-) to the framework metal sites, neutralizing an otherwise cationic scaffolding. Here, we report a general method capable of converting such neutral frameworks directly into cationic ones with concurrent generation of mobile anions. Our method is based on the differential affinity between distinct metal ions with framework anionic species. Specifically, Al(3+) is used to strip F(-) anions away from framework Cr(3+) sites, leading to cationic frameworks with mobile Cl(-) anions. The subsequent anion exchange with OH(-) further leads to a porous network with mobile OH(-) anions. New materials prepared by anion stripping can undergo ion exchange with anionic organic dyes and also exhibit much improved ionic conductivity compared to the original unmodified MOFs.

Vibrational spectroscopy and NMR demonstrate that the proton-bound dimer of 1-methylcytosine, 1, has an unsymmetrical structure at room temperature. In the gas phase, investigation of isolated homodimer 1 reveals five fundamental NH vibrations by IR Multiple Photon Dissociation (IRMPD) action spectroscopy. The NH···N stretching vibration between the two ring nitrogens exhibits a frequency of 1570 cm(-1), as confirmed by examination of the proton-bound homodimers of 5-fluoro-1-methycytosine, 2, and of 1,5-dimethylcytosine, 3, which display absorptions in the same region that disappear upon deuterium substitution. (13)C, and (15)N NMR of the solid iodide salt of 1 confirm the nonequivalence of the two rings in the anhydrous proton-bound homodimer at room temperature. IRMPD spectra of the three possible heterodimers also show NH···N stretches in the same domain, and at least one of the heterodimers, the proton-bound dimer of 1,5-dimethylcytosine with 1-methylcytosine, exhibits two bands suggestive of the presence of two tautomers close in energy.