title: Fluorescence resonance energy transfer of gas-phase ions under ultra high vacuum and ambient conditions.
abstract: We report evidence for fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) of gas-phase ions under ultra high vacuum conditions (10(-9) mbar) inside a mass spectrometer as well as under ambient conditions inside an electrospray plume. Two different FRET pairs based on carboxyrhodamine 6G (donor) and ATTO590 or Bodipy TR (acceptor) dyes were examined and their gas-phase optical properties were studied. Our measurements indicate a different behavior for the two FRET pairs, which can be attributed to their different conformations in the gas phase. Upon desolvation via electrospray ionization, one of the FRET pairs undergoes a conformational change that leads to disappearance of FRET. This study shows the promise of FRET to obtain a direct correlation between solution and gas-phase structures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zurich, HCI E 329, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland. zenobi@org.chem.ethz.ch.
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Frankevich
authors.forename: Vitaliy
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Chagovets
authors.forename: Fanny
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Widjaja
authors.forename: Konstantin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Barylyuk
authors.forename: Zhiyi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Renato
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zenobi