A Molecular Magnet Confined in the Nanocage of a Globular Protein

✍ Scribed by Rajib K. Mitra; Pramod K. Verma; Dirk Wulferding; Dirk Menzel; Tamoghna Mitra; Ana M. Todea; Peter Lemmens; Achim Müller; Samir K. Pal

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 382 KB
• Volume: 11
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1439-4235
• DOI: 10.1002/cphc.200900708

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The effect of confinement and energy transfer on the dynamics of a molecular magnet, known as a model system to study quantum coherence, is investigated. For this purpose the well‐known polyoxovanadate [V~15~As~6~O~42~(H~2~O)]^6−^ (V~15~) is incorporated into a protein (human serum albumin, HSA) cavity. Due to a huge overlap of the optical absorption spectrum of V~15~ with the emission spectrum of a fluorescence center of HSA (containing a single tryptophan residue), energy transfer is induced and probed by steady‐state and time‐resolved fluorescence. The geometrical coordination and the distance of the confined V~15~ to the tryptophan moiety of HSA are investigated at various temperatures. This effect is used as a local probe for the thermal denaturation of the protein at elevated temperatures.